SAN LEANDRO — A dog may be a man’s best friend, but 37-year-old Juan Amezquita of Oakland discovered early Monday morning that a police dog can be a car thief’s worst enemy.
According to a San Leandro Police press release, around 1:00 a.m., officers were investigating a report of a stolen 1996 Nissan Altima from the 1100 block of Victoria Avenue. An alert patrol officer spotted the stolen car on a side street only a quarter of a mile away. The officer was unable to see inside the car, which had tinted windows, but when a second officer arrived, Amezquita bolted from the car and disappeared into a nearby neighborhood. A search of the abandoned vehicle turned up a ballistic vest, narcotics and tools used to break into the car.
Backup units, including the K-9 team of Officer Dennis Mally and his partner, Rohan, were dispatched to the area to search for the suspect. Rohan managed to sniff out Amezquita hiding in a backyard utility shed on the 1100 block of Dutton Avenue. But just as police were about to apprehend him, Amezquita smashed through the shed’s wall and, according to Lt. Robert McManus of the San Leandro Police Department, “charged officers while trying to escape and failed to stop, despite the officers’ repeated commands.” Fortunately, he didn’t get far. The intrepid police dog, trained in fetching as well as finding, captured Amezquita near the scene. “A struggle ensued as the officers tried to handcuff the suspect,” says Lt. McManus, “but they were eventually able to overcome his resistance and safely arrest him.”
Amezquita tried hiding in a shed in this neighborhood.
Things could have turned out much worse. Inside the shed where Amezquita was hiding, police found a loaded high-caliber, semi-automatic handgun. A check of the gun revealed that it had been reported stolen a few weeks earlier after a burglary in Klamath Falls, Oregon.
Amezquita was arrested on suspicion of auto theft, possession of a loaded and stolen firearm, possession of narcotics and a host of other charges. Police also discovered that Amezquita was on probation for an earlier attempted car theft only two miles away. Coincidentally, it was the same K-9 team that apprehended him that time as well. He will be arraigned Tuesday afternoon in the Hayward Superior Court.
According to Lt. Robert McManus of the San Leandro Police Department, “It was the work of an alert patrol officer and the keen sense of a police canine that led to the arrest of Amezquita and recovery of another stolen firearm that may likely be used against someone else. Arrests such as this make our community safer for everyone.”
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