Man allegedly wields machete to chase after driver he rear-ended
A 38-year-old man allegedly stole a cellphone and brandished a machete as he chased down the driver of a vehicle he got into a fender bender with late last month in Burbank, according to police.
Two vehicles were involved in a minor rear-end collision near Alameda Avenue and Omer Lane sometime about 7:20 p.m. on Feb. 26. The driver of one of the vehicles was trying to exchange information with the driver of the pick-up truck that rear-ended him, but the person refused to cooperate.
Sgt. Derek Green, a spokesman for the Burbank Police Department, said in an email the driver then started to take photographs of the truck’s license plate on a cellphone, which angered the other man.
“At that point, the suspect pushed the victim and took his cellphone from him,” he said. “The suspect then retrieved a machete from inside of his pickup truck and chased the victim for a short distance, before fleeing the scene.”
Green added that the machete was taken from the bed of the truck, where there were various gardening tools and equipment.
Detectives were able to retrieve the stolen phone and, using a photo of the license plate, track down the truck’s owner, who turned out not to be the man with the machete.
The owner had loaned his vehicle to a friend at the time of the incident, according to Green, and he helped convince the man to surrender himself to police.
He was identified as Jose Vargas, a Pacoima resident, and he was booked on suspicion of robbery. He is scheduled to appear in court on March 21.
Police have yet to recover the machete.
Twitter: @Andy_Truc
