PORT HUENEME : 4 Girls Arrested in Theft of Truck

Police arrested four teen-age girls Tuesday after they allegedly stole a pickup truck and narrowly missed hitting about a dozen students waiting for a school bus.

“None of them had driver’s licenses, and they couldn’t drive very well,” Port Hueneme Police Sgt. Jerry Beck said. “They were initially going to drop someone off at the bus stop, and they were going to make a U-turn, and they blew it.”

Police received several calls about 8:30 a.m. about a truck out of control near the post office in the 500 block of Pleasant Valley Road. The truck, which had been reported stolen the day before in Oxnard, knocked over several signs before nearly crashing into several students at a bus stop, Beck said.

The pickup went over the center divider, ran onto and off a sidewalk and hit a block wall, Beck said. The driver then put the truck in reverse and drove north on Evergreen Lane, where it was abandoned.

Beck said he saw the teen-agers running and looking over their shoulders when he stopped them a short time later.

Four street signs and a sycamore tree were damaged. No one was hurt, Beck said.

“There were cars swerving all over the place and horns honking,” Beck said.

Police arrested the four girls on suspicion of auto theft and hit-and-run driving. Arrested were a 17-year-old, 16-year-old and 15-year-old, all from Oxnard, and a 14-year-old from Port Hueneme. Their names are being withheld because of their ages.

The teen-agers were released to their parents and are awaiting a court hearing, Beck said.