BERKELEY, CA \u2014 Police say they recovered 11 catalytic converters during an apparently chaotic but brief chase of a suspect through Berkeley early Thursday morning. <\/p>\n
Officers responded just before 3:30 a.m. to the 2500 block of College Avenue after someone reported a possible catalytic converter theft, according to the Berkeley Police Department. <\/p>\n
When they arrived at the scene, officers saw a white Infiniti sedan being driven southbound on College Avenue without its front license plate, police said. <\/p>\n
When the officer tried to get the driver to stop, they sped off, turning westbound onto Russell Street and then entering an off-street parking lot in the Elmwood neighborhood, police said. <\/p>\n
The officer covered the only exit, police said, creating a dead-end in the parking lot for the suspect. Rather than surrender, the suspect slowed toward the officer’s car and then suddenly sped up, police said. <\/p>\n
The suspect then continued speeding toward the officer’s car before suddenly swerving at the last moment onto a raised curb, police said, adding that the maneuver enabled the suspect exit the lot. <\/p>\n
Officers briefly continued pursue the suspect before losing sight of them near Ashby Avenue in the Claremont area, police said. <\/p>\n
The suspect ditched the vehicle along Parkside Drive and left the scene, police said, although officers later found it with the help of an Automated License Plate Reader. <\/p>\n
Inside, officers found 11 stolen catalytic converters, a floor jack and several power tools often used to steal car converters, police said.<\/p>\n
“Although the suspects may have evaded arrest that day, our officers will remain vigilant and committed to deterring and apprehending those who target our community,” police said in a statement Friday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BERKELEY, CA \u2014 Police say they recovered 11 catalytic converters during an apparently chaotic but brief chase of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":198399,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[143,145,144],"class_list":{"0":"post-198398","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-oakland","8":"tag-oakland","9":"tag-oakland-headlines","10":"tag-oakland-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198398","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=198398"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198398\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/198399"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=198398"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=198398"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=198398"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}