On May 9 at approximately 11:35 p.m., two suspects entered the AT&T store at 808 Wilshire Blvd., and snatched four smartphones from a display shelf, then quickly left the store.
Witnesses immediately called 911 and gave a description of the car the suspects were seen fleeing in. A few minutes later, a Santa Monica police officer saw a car matching the description get onto the westbound I-10 freeway and started following it onto northbound PCH.
When the officer got close to the car, the driver accelerated to a high rate of speed and tried to outrun the officer by running a red light at the California Incline. The driver then veered left into the southbound traffic lanes and also had to swerve onto the driveways of houses on the west side of PCH to avoid a collision with some of the southbound drivers.
When the driver reached the 900 block of PCH, he turned left into a public parking lot and continued speeding through the lot. The driver then drove onto the sand at the edge of the beach and became stuck.
Both suspects immediately bailed out of the car and ran away on foot in separate directions. One of the suspects ran across PCH but was stopped by officers near the Montana Avenue stairs and taken into custody after a short foot pursuit. Shaun Nicholas Toldber, 19, of Hawthorne, was arrested and held on $56,000 bail.
The other suspect has not yet been located.
