Three ATM Heist Suspects Are Under Arrest After Freeway Chase
Garden Grove police Sunday arrested three men suspected of robbing a Blockbuster Video employee as she tried to deposit the store’s receipts at the ATM of a local bank.
Police Sgt. Ben Lux said the suspects confronted the employee at 9:56 a.m. at the Wells Fargo Bank branch at Harbor and Garden Grove boulevards. Witnesses told police the suspects grabbed the money and took off in a Plymouth Neon.
Officer Carl Whitney, alerted to the robbery by police dispatchers, was northbound on the Garden Grove Freeway when the Neon passed him near the San Diego Freeway. Lux said Whitney followed the vehicle north on the San Diego Freeway to Seal Beach Boulevard, where it exited.
Lux said the car then got back on the San Diego Freeway southbound, with Whitney in pursuit. The vehicle exited the freeway at Bolsa Chica Road, where it came to a stop.
Two of the suspects remained inside, but the front-seat passenger scaled a fence and hid in a field at the Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station. He was arrested by officers, who found what they believed to be some of the stolen money in his pockets, Lux said.
The remainder of the stolen money was found on the front seat of the car, he said.
The three were arrested on suspicion of robbery.
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