Santa Barbara County – There are several very simple tenets that should be foremost in the mind of anyone aspiring to a career as a car thief: 1) Avoid stealing cars on Sundays; criminals are generally less active on the Sabbath, and police have plenty of time to watch passing traffic in hopes of spotting a stolen car; 2) Refrain from driving a stolen vehicle around anywhere close to the city where the stealing occurred (everybody’s looking for it); 3) If the cops spot you while driving the stolen car and you see flashing red lights behind you, be sure that the car is capable of high-torque, acceleration, and top-end speeds in excess of any high-powered police cruiser; 4) Do not attempt to evade arrest by either running over a cop or ramming his black-and-white; 5) Don’t think you can win a footrace with cops unless you happen to be Usain Bolt.
Sadly for his future as a successful car thief, Steven Diaz, a 23-year old resident of Santa Maria, seems to have been unaware of these fundamental guidelines on the morning of September 15th. It was approximately 10:30 a.m. on that day when patrol officers of the Santa Maria Police Department spotted a parked car that had earlier been reported stolen.
Rather than simply approach the car and start recording its VIN data, however, according to SMPD spokesman Sgt. Eligio Lara, “the officers conducted surveillance of the vehicle”. It wasn’t long before their patience was rewarded with the appearance of Diaz, who climbed behind the wheel of what is known in the parlance as the “hot car”.
When officers made contact with Diaz to announce his immediate arrest, however, he fired the ignition and made a sincere effort to run down one of the men in blue, whereupon he drove off and ran smack into the officers’ patrol unit. By then another patrol unit had arrived on scene, and Diaz took the opportunity to run into that second black-and-white before speeding off.
As the two patrol units gave chase for a full eight minutes through city streets, Diaz ultimately alighted from the stolen car and made an attempt to flee on foot, apparently unaware of the dismal success record of such endeavors. Diaz was shortly thereafter brought into submission, arrested, and booked into Santa Barbara County Jail on charges of car theft, evading, and resisting arrest. Additional charges are pending.
Photo: Courtesy Santa Barbara County Jail Booking
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