Police, deputies chase car theft suspect in north Modesto

A three-hour chase ended Monday morning with the arrest of a suspected auto thief in north Modesto.

Authorities eventually found Robert Trujillo, 27 of Modesto, hiding in a backyard on the 2500 block of Sherwood Avenue at about 8:15 a.m. The hunt jumped from cul-de-sacs to alleys to hedges. Authorities used a helicopter and and police dogs to track the man.

The chase started at 4:52 a.m. when a Stanislaus County Sheriff’s deputy on Oakdale Road spotted a 1997 Honda Civic matching the description of a car stolen from Waterford, said Sheriff’s deputy Royjindar Singh.

An ensuing pursuit reached speeds up to 80 mph, he said, before the car stopped in an alley behind the Safeway grocery store at McHenry and Briggsmore avenues. The driver hopped a wall into a residential neighborhood.

Modesto police and sheriff’s deputies formed a perimeter, and a sheriff’s helicopter droned overhead.

Despite various suspect sitings in backyards and alleys, authorities pulled down the perimeter without an arrest at 7:12 a.m.

A half hour later, a homeowner reported spotting someone in his hedge on the 300 block of Fleetwood Drive, about a half mile from Safeway. The person was reported again on the 500 block of Harcourt Avenue before a dog cornered him on the 2500 block of Sherwood Avenue, Singh said. Trujillo was taken to Doctors Medical Center for treatment of dog bites before being booked at the Stanislaus County Jail, Singh said.