Police pursuit

Lauren Vane

The driver of a stolen ambulance led police on a high-speed chase

down Pacific Coast Highway through several beach cities on Friday,

before finally ending in Dana Point when the driver crashed the

ambulance into a median, police said.

Huntington Beach police noticed the ambulance driving recklessly

at 10:52 p.m. near Warner Avenue and Pacific Coast Highway in

Huntington Beach, said Lt. Craig Juniger, of the Huntington Beach

Police Department.

“At the time we first saw it and started following it, we didn’t

know it was stolen,” Juniger said.

Police thought the ambulance looked suspicious because it was

traveling at a high rate of speed with the siren blaring, but the

emergency lights were not on, Juniger said.

Both a patrol unit and a police helicopter attempted to stop the

vehicle, but the ambulance accelerated, police said. At this point,

officers were not sure if the ambulance was traveling to nearby Hoag

Hospital in Newport Beach, so they monitored the ambulance but did

not attempt to intervene, police said.

When officers witnessed the ambulance speed through Newport Beach,

they determined it was not headed to the hospital, and they began to

pursue the vehicle, police said.

Huntington Beach Police dispatchers contacted the ambulance

company, who confirmed that the vehicle was likely stolen from Long

Beach, police said.

The chase continued down Pacific Coast Highway, where Laguna Beach

police units joined in the pursuit.

In Dana Point, the ambulance swerved, hit a center divider and

rolled onto its side, Juniger said. The driver, Robert Wayne Lafleur

II, 30, of Stockton, was treated for a bruised arm at San Clemente

Medical Center, police said.

Lafleur was arrested on suspicion of auto theft and evading police

and was taken to the Huntington Beach Jail, police said.

No one else was injured in the chase, police said.