Woman Arrested After Chase in Two Counties

An unidentified woman led several Southland police agencies on a chase through Orange and Riverside counties for more than an hour before being arrested without incident at an off-ramp of Interstate 215, authorities said.

An unidentified man riding in her car also was taken into custody, said a spokeswoman for the California Highway Patrol in Riverside.

The chase began in Garden Grove at about 8:20 p.m. when a Garden Grove police officer signaled the woman driver to pull over on Chapman Avenue for an alleged speeding violation, Garden Grove Police Sgt. Paul Prince said. But as the patrolman, identified as Officer Roger Keyes, pulled up behind her car, the driver made an obscene gesture “and drove off laughing,” Prince said.

The driver, described only as a woman in a Ford Escort or Fiesta, rapidly accelerated and “drove in an erratic fashion to Beach Boulevard,” with Garden Grove officers in pursuit, Prince said.

Authorities said the woman drove north on Beach Boulevard through a construction area, ran over several traffic cones, detoured through a residential area and then got on the eastbound Riverside Freeway, heading toward Riverside County. As the chase progressed at speeds of up to 100 miles an hour, officers from Anaheim, Buena Park and Fullerton joined in, as did two police helicopter units.

In Riverside, the unidentified driver got on the northbound Interstate 215, but pulled off the freeway at the La Cadena off-ramp, where she was arrested at 9:22 p.m., according to a spokeswoman for the CHP in Riverside.