Santa Clarita / Antelope Valley : Car Theft Chases End in 5 Arrests : Crime: One case involves a 54-mile pursuit of two men and a girl. In the other case, victim’s husband aids in capture.

In unrelated incidents, suspected car thieves led police on pursuits--one of them on foot--through the Santa Clarita and Antelope valleys Thursday night and early Friday.

In one pursuit, a suspect escaped by running into a storm drain, only to be arrested later by an off-duty officer who heard about the chase. In the second pursuit, two men and a teen-age girl led officers on a 54-mile chase that began in Los Angeles and ended with their arrest in Palmdale.

The first incident began at 3:30 p.m. Thursday in Palmdale, when Jennifer Winn of Lancaster told sheriff’s deputies that her 1985 Honda Accord had been stolen from her workplace on Palmdale Boulevard.

She also called her husband, Henry, who spotted the stolen car a short time later on the Antelope Valley Freeway while he was driving toward his wife’s workplace.

The husband followed the stolen car and, using his cellular phone, told the California Highway Patrol where it was located, said CHP Officer Michelle Fink.

A CHP officer soon moved in behind the stolen car, prompting the driver of the Accord to pull onto the shoulder, just north of the Sand Canyon Road exit in Santa Clarita, Fink said. Both men left the car and ran down an embankment.

The driver, Freddie Pinuelas, 39, of Palmdale was quickly arrested by a CHP officer, but his companion ran into a storm channel, then into a circular drain, Fink said.

Three CHP officers and a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy tracked him into the drain through footprints and disturbed spider webs, but they abandoned the hunt after concluding that the man had escaped by crawling into one of the smaller tributary tunnels.

At 7 p.m., however, Albert Gavin, an off-duty Los Angeles Police Department sergeant who was walking with his wife near Marilyn and Meadow drives, spotted and detained the missing suspect. Fink said Gavin knew about the pursuit and had heard a description of the suspect, identified as Henry Zepeda, 39, of North Hollywood.

Inside the stolen car, officers found marijuana and burglary tools, Fink said. Zepeda and Pinuelas were jailed on suspicion of auto theft, drug offenses and possession of burglary tools, she said.

In the second chase, at 11:21 p.m. Thursday, LAPD officers asked the CHP to take over the pursuit of a stolen Toyota Celica on the northbound Antelope Valley Freeway near Placerita Canyon Road. Officers chased the Celica, which was moving at 70 to 75 m.p.h., to Palmdale, said CHP Officer Mike Wible.

The Celica left the freeway at Palmdale Boulevard but continued to move at high speeds. The driver failed to stop for red lights and stop signs, Wible said.

The car went as far as 107th Street East, then looped back toward Palmdale. When it slowed near 90th Street East and Palmdale Boulevard, officers sideswiped the rear, causing the car to spin out of control and stop, the CHP spokesman said. The chase lasted 48 minutes and covered just over 54 miles, Wible said.

Officers arrested the driver, Bobby Clinkscales, 19, of Littlerock and his two passengers, Charles Benjamin, 25, of Los Angeles and a 16-year-old girl whose named was withheld.

The two men were jailed at the Antelope Valley Sheriff’s Station on suspicion of auto theft. The teen-age female suspect was taken to Juvenile Hall in Sylmar.

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