Driver Found Hiding in Yard After Fleeing Traffic Stop

UPDATE: Stolen property, which included mail and a California handicap placard were found in the suspect's vehicle. Charges against the driver include resisting arrest and possession of stolen property. The two passengers were also arrested on charges of possession of stolen property, police said.

A man was arrested early Wednesday morning after fleeing a traffic stop and prompting an hours-long search of a San Jose neighborhood, a Santa Clara County sheriff's spokesman said.

A sheriff's deputy tried to pull over a Honda Civic for a vehicle code violation at about 1 a.m. in the area of Moorpark and Saratoga Avenues but the driver didn't stop, sheriff's Sgt. Jose Cardoza said.

Instead, he continued to drive slowly for a few blocks, then stopped abruptly in the right lane of Moorpark Avenue at Camina Escuela, about half a mile from the Cupertino border.

As the deputy prepared to approach the Honda, the car door opened and the driver "just starts to run," Cardoza said.

There were two other people in the Honda, and they refused to cooperate or identify the driver but one did mention that he might have a weapon, Cardoza said.

Deputies began to search the neighborhood, and called the Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety, which sent a K-9 unit to assist.

At about 4:30 a.m., they located the driver hiding near a shed in the yard of a home a couple of blocks from where he had pulled over.

Cardoza said he had suffered some scratches, perhaps while fleeing, and was taken to a hospital to be evaluated.

The sheriff's office is still working to confirm the man's identity and determine why he fled.

San Jose police assisted in the search.

—By Bay City News Service