MOORPARK : Burglars Make a Big Splash, Then Flee

An attempted burglary by a trio of men who rammed a stolen car through the steel door of a Moorpark manufacturing company came to a watery ending minutes after it began, authorities said.

The men took about $150,000 worth of precision bearings from the O.E.M. West Co. after crashing the car through the company’s door at 10:30 p.m. Thursday and loading the bearings into a stolen pickup truck, police said.

However, while the men were trying to flee, the pickup crashed into a fire hydrant a block away in the 5200 block of Bonsai Street, authorities said.

Witnesses, who described the men as Latino, saw the trio speed away in a third vehicle, authorities said.

The car used to smash through the metal roll-up door had been stolen in Moorpark hours before the attempted burglary, and the pickup was stolen in Los Angeles, authorities said.

The company recovered the bearings, which are used in a variety of sophisticated medical instruments and in aircraft, but is still assessing the property damage, a spokesman said.