Police Get Their Man After Low-Gear Pursuit

Police chased a stolen vehicle from Santa Monica to Granada Hills on Friday, but without any high-speed drama. What the fugitive lacked in zip, he made up for in mass.

Although the lumbering flight lasted more than three hours and the fugitive was moving only about 25 m.p.h.--40 tops--Santa Monica, Los Angeles and California Highway Patrol officers were not about to try to force him to the side of the road.

Not while he was at the wheel of that 40-foot-long, 9-ton Winnebago motor home.

“He was like a semi-truck,” said Santa Monica Police Sgt. Don Quinn. “If you put a car in front of him, someone is going to get hurt.”

“It’s kind of like chasing a tank,” said Santa Monica Lt. Jim Dawson.

Sidney Tapia, 25, of Sherman Oaks, was arrested when he pulled off the Simi Valley Freeway at Hayvenhurst Avenue. “He either ran out of gas or just decided to give up,” said Santa Monica Lt. Robert Taylor.

But after stopping the motor home, Tapia locked himself in, waved a knife and threw garbage at officers, Dawson said. He then tried to flee but was tracked down by a police dog named Oscar, Taylor said.

The pursuit began shortly before midnight at Ocean Park Boulevard and Main Street in Santa Monica when a motorist reported seeing the motor home being driven down the wrong side of Main Street, Taylor said. Officers saw the motor home hit a parked car and signaled with lights and sirens for the driver to pull over.

The motor home headed toward two other Santa Monica police cars intentionally blocking the way, Dawson said, but they managed to get out of its path.

The Winnebago then headed off at about 25 m.p.h up Main Street to Wilshire Boulevard and into West Hollywood, continued north on the Hollywood Freeway and then west on the Simi Valley Freeway.

The motor home turned out to have been reported as stolen, and Tapia was being held on suspicion of grand theft auto, hit-and-run driving, assault with a deadly weapon--the Winnebago--and failing to yield to an emergency vehicle.