THOUSAND OAKS : 2 Held After Truck Taken From Dealer

A police pursuit that began after a pickup truck was stolen from a Thousand Oaks car dealership Wednesday afternoon ended less than an hour later in North Hollywood with two arrests and no injuries, authorities said.

Ventura County sheriff’s deputies spotted the black Nissan sport truck heading south on the Ventura Freeway a few minutes after it was stolen from the dealership at Auto Mall Drive.

“It wasn’t really a chase as much as we just followed him until he got off the freeway and waited until we had enough units to stop him safely,” a Sheriff’s Department spokesman said. “It ended without a struggle.”

Deputies arrested Joe Abasta, 21, of El Monte and Raul Varela, 19 of Rowland Heights. They were being held Wednesday evening in lieu of $5,000 bail each.

People at the dealership said they knew something was amiss when the truck went skidding out of the parking lot at a high rate of speed, according to Nick Stark, a sales manager.

“We heard the screeching and we saw him get on the freeway,” Stark said. “We called 911 and in minutes we were told they had spotted the car.

“If he hadn’t made so much noise coming out of the lot, they would never have caught him,” Stark said. “We were really lucky.”