La Habra : 3 Arrested After Van Stolen at Gunpoint

Three men were arrested Tuesday after a woman’s van was stolen at gunpoint when she stopped to make a phone call, police said.

The woman had gotten out of the van at Imperial Highway and Beach Boulevard about 1:50 a.m. when a man wearing a ski mask pointed a gun at her and ordered her to lie on the ground, La Habra Police Sgt. Bob Wyse said. He took her car keys and drove west in her van on Imperial Highway, followed by two men in a gold Oldsmobile, police said.

The woman called police, and less than 20 minutes later, officers pulled over an Oldsmobile in Whittier. The woman identified her van keys and stereo in the car, Wyse said.

Within minutes, police found the van in a residential area between Imperial Highway and Lambert Road in La Habra, Wyse said.

The three suspects, Omar Alexander Hernandez, 24, and Robert Juarez Ruiz, 18, both of Buena Park, and Mario Albert Montes, 20, of Beaumont, are being held in lieu of $50,000 bail each in La Habra City Jail.