CAMARILLO : Ex-Police Officer Chases Thieves

A former police officer wearing only a T-shirt gave chase to a truck carrying a high-pressure concrete washer stolen from his Camarillo house, he and authorities said.

Wielding a .45-caliber handgun, Steve Shubin said he fired two shots into the air to scare the robbers away from his house late Monday night, then pursued them in his truck at speeds up to 90 m.p.h. to Thousand Oaks.

“It reminded me of my old police days,” said Shubin, 39, who used to work for the Pomona Police Department.

Dennis Lee Brewer, 33, of Simi Valley was arrested Monday on suspicion of grand theft in connection with the incident, Ventura County sheriff’s deputies said. He was released from Ventura County Jail Tuesday.

Gary Goodman, 30, of Simi Valley and Robert Stewart, 33, of Canoga Park were arrested on suspicion of grand theft Tuesday, and were being held in lieu of $5,000 bail.

Shubin’s three teen-age sons had seen the passengers of one truck loading one of their father’s washers minutes before a second truck arrived, Shubin said. The oldest son, 17, ran to Shubin’s bedroom to tell him that another washer was being loaded into the second truck. Shubin, clad in a T-shirt, jumped out of bed, grabbed his gun and ran to his truck.

Shubin uses the two washers, which weigh 500 and 1,500 pounds each, for his parking-garage cleaning business, Steve Allen Sweep & Wash of Thousand Oaks. He said the smaller one, valued at $4,500, is still missing.

Shubin said he got in his truck and followed the thieves’ truck down Old Butterfield Road in Camarillo to its dead end. The truck turned around and raced around Shubin, Sgt. Mike De Los Santos said. One man in the truck bed threw tools, a tool box and the washer battery at Shubin’s truck during the chase, he said. Shubin said he was able to swerve around the battery and saw it explode at the roadside.

The truck carrying the heavier washer stopped in a vacant field in the area of Moorpark and Olsen roads in Thousand Oaks, De Los Santos said.

The thieves fled on foot into a residential area, where Brewer was caught after a search by sheriff’s deputies from Moorpark and Thousand Oaks and a K-9 unit from Camarillo, De Los Santos said. Goodman and Stewart were apprehended several hours later.