FILE PHOTO: Contra Costa County Sheriff helicopter.
CONTRA COSTA COUNTY, Calif. - One person was arrested and another was being sought Sunday afternoon after Contra Costa County Sheriff's deputies tried to pull over a vehicle reported as stolen, a Sheriff's sergeant said.
Deputies reported spotting the stolen car at about 4:45 p.m. Sunday on Pacheco Boulevard in the unincorporated area between Pleasant Hill and Martinez, Sheriff's Sgt. Scott Dickerson. The car fled from deputies, going the wrong way on Pacheco Boulevard and getting into a minor accident before getting onto Interstate Highway 680 at Concord Avenue in Pleasant Hill.
Dickerson said the stolen car then left I-680 at Willow Pass Road, where the driver abandoned the car, which had a flat tire from the collision, Dickerson said.
While deputies took a passenger in the car into custody, the driver fled into a parking structure on the south end of the nearby Sunvalley Mall. Though Sheriff's deputies and Concord police officers guarded entrances to the mall, Dickerson said it's unlikely the suspect ever entered the mall.
While the driver had yet to be captured by 7 p.m. Sunday, the stolen car's passenger was arrested on suspicion of obstructing a law enforcement officer.
The stolen vehicle will be reunited with its owner, Dickerson said.