Teens Steal Pair’s Car at Gunpoint

Two juveniles armed with a sawed-off shotgun forced a man and a woman from their car in a parking lot at Grossmont Center on Saturday night, then led La Mesa police on a chase that ended when the pair crashed on Interstate 8 near Interstate 805, police said.

The youths, aged 15 and 17, approached a 1989 car belonging to Margaret Ekdahl of San Diego about 8 p.m. as she and a companion were sitting in the car near the shopping center, according to Lt. Michael Wolfe of the La Mesa Police Department. One boy pointed a shotgun at the pair and ordered them out, Wolfe said. They then took Ekdahl’s purse and her companion’s wallet and drove off in the car.

The victims called police, and a short time later, Officer Kathy Adams saw the car enter I-8 from Fletcher Parkway, Wolfe said. The teen-agers sped up when Adams began following them in her patrol car, he said. As they left the freeway to enter I-805, the driver lost control of the car and it rolled over. One of the teen-agers suffered two broken legs, he said.

Their identities were not released because of their ages.