Gunman Takes Car, Leaves Puzzle

Police were sorting out a perplexing Sunday drive that began when a man took a Red Corvette for a test drive in Santa Ana and ended when police stopped the car on the Santa Ana Freeway in Irvine--but not before the driver pulled a gun on the salesman for the used car, leaving him standing on a Garden Grove street corner.

The problem is that the man who stole the Corvette was not in it 25 minutes later when Irvine police caught up with it near the Alton Parkway freeway exit.

Police arrested Richard Faeck, 47, of Desert Hot Springs on a charge of possession of stolen property, Garden Grove Police Lt. John Woods said.

Faeck was driving the Corvette when it was stopped by Irvine police, Woods said, “but he’s not the guy who took the car. It got changed over.”

The odyssey began when a buyer and unidentified car salesman left J & D Auto Sales in Santa Ana shortly before 2 p.m., Woods said. After driving into Garden Grove, the prospective buyer pulled a handgun and ordered the salesman to get out of the car at Euclid Avenue and Woodbury Road. The salesman was not injured.

Within minutes, Garden Grove police had alerted neighboring police agencies of the incident.

At 2:21 p.m., Irvine police spotted the stolen car headed south on the Santa Ana Freeway and pulled it over.

But once the police agencies conferred, it was clear that the gunman who had stolen the car was not the same man who was driving when police pulled the Corvette over in Irvine, Woods said.