The driver of a stolen tractor trailer has finally stopped on the Garden Grove (55) Freeway in Santa Ana, creating a standoff with law enforcement Thursday morning.
Officers from the California Highway Patrol surrounded the tractor trailer at the MacArthur Boulevard exit just after 4 a.m. with the suspect refusing to come out of the rig, said a CHP spokeswoman.
The southbound lanes of the freeway were closed during the standoff.
The pursuit lasted eight hours and began around 8:14 p.m. Wednesday when the suspect allegedly stole the big rig from a food service lot at Fifth and Indiana streets in East Los Angeles, said CHP Officer Patrick Kimball.
After traversing several Los Angeles County freeways on Wednesday the suspect led officers on a slow-speed chase into Orange County on Thursday morning.
CHP officers attempted to slow the suspect down using spike strips eight times on the freeways. The strips punctured several of the tractor trailer’s tires — blowing two of the front tire completely off the rig — but the driver continued, driving at a slower rate of speed.
Just before 11 p.m. three additional attempts with the spike strips were used to no avail, Kimball said.