Chase Ends in Arrest of 2 in Bad Check Case

Police arrested two men suspected of passing a stolen check Monday, but not before one of them allegedly stole an unmarked police car and led officers on a high-speed chase through east Ventura, authorities said.

Hannie Eugene Rice, 39, of Hanford, and his son, Justin Eugene Rice, 19, of Ventura were arrested on suspicion of auto theft, forgery and resisting arrest said Ventura Police Lt. Carl Handy. The elder Rice had been out of prison on parole for a week, according to Handy.

Both men were booked into Ventura County Jail. Justin Rice is being held in lieu of $10,000 bail, but the elder Rice will probably not be eligible for bail because of his parole violation, authorities said.

The incident began about 1 p.m. when police received a call from an employee of the Country Inn on Chestnut Street about two people who tried to pay their bill with a stolen check, Officer Ross Nidiffer said.

Nidiffer found the subjects’ vehicle, a cream-colored Volkswagen van with Utah license plates, on Greenhill Avenue. The two men fled in the van north on Sunridge Drive, Nidiffer said, and then headed east on Crowley Avenue, where they ditched the van.

“All hell broke loose,” said Tom Simmons, who lives at the corner of Crowley and Sunridge.

Justin Rice ran through the backyard of Judy Wussow’s house in the 6500 block of Crowley Avenue and into a nearby orchard, police said. Eugene Rice took off north between two houses and allegedly stole an unmarked police car that had been left unattended, its keys in the ignition, authorities said.

Wussow, whose house borders the west side of the orchard, was awakened from a nap by a siren.

“I thought it was an ambulance, but when I looked outside my window, I saw the police car in my driveway with its lights and siren going,” Wussow said.

A neighbor across the street was waving for Wussow to hit the floor, and when Wussow turned to look out the window on the back of her house, she saw a police officer, his gun drawn, shouting, “Stop or I’ll shoot,” Wussow said.

Wussow, who usually keeps every door and gate around her house locked, said she forgot to secure the gate that leads to her backyard and another that leads from her backyard to the orchard.

“Had they been locked, the police could have grabbed him right here,” Wussow said.

Nidiffer apprehended Justin Rice in the orchard and put him in the back of the police car in Wussow’s driveway. As he questioned Justin, a sheriff’s helicopter flew overhead to assist others in finding the stolen car.

The chase moved about two miles east to an orchard on Montgomery Avenue, where officers found the unmarked police car on a dirt road south of Cheshire Street.

Eugene Rice, who police believe took the car, was arrested in the 1300 block of Owens Avenue, north of the orchard where the unmarked car was found.

Officers, with guns drawn, surrounded the house on Owens Avenue and took Eugene Rice into custody in the backyard.

Times correspondent Andrew D. Blechman contributed to this story