Teen detained after pair steals car

SOUTH GLENDALE — Police detained a teenager for questioning Tuesday morning after searching for more than two hours for suspects who allegedly stole a car idling on a driveway.

Detectives were interviewing the teen, whose name wasn’t released, about the vehicle theft on the 600 block of Raleigh Street, Glendale Police Sgt. Tom Lorenz said. They were still searching for a suspect who witnesses described only as a Latino man, he added.

The theft occurred just after 8 a.m., when a woman left her idling car with the keys in the ignition and parked in a driveway, he said.

She immediately notified police as she saw the men drive off in her car.

A motorcycle officer managed to get the suspects to pull over after they made several attempts to outmaneuver him, Lorenz said.

The suspects ran from the car into the south Glendale neighborhood of Los Feliz Road and Brand Boulevard, where police set up a perimeter to find them.

The Police Department deployed a helicopter and police dogs to assist in the search, which went on for more than two hours.

The teen was eventually detained at the Mobil gas station at Los Feliz Road and South Central Avenue, Lorenz said.

Witnesses said the teen was walking away from the station’s restroom when officers detained him.

Detectives were still trying to determine whether the suspects were using the car for a joyride, planning to steal it to commit another crime, or were going to dismantle it at a chop shop, Lorenz said.

“We don’t know what their intentions were,” Lorenz said.

Police were also investigating whether the suspects were tied to other burglaries in the area.

A similar theft occurred on March 2 when a Huntington Park man left the keys in the ignition of his idling 1989 Nissan pickup truck on the 600 block of East Acacia Avenue, Lorenz said.

The pickup truck was found later that month in the city.