Boy, 16, held after crash of stolen truck

Dan Kulin

Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2004 | 11 a.m.

A 16-year-old crashed an allegedly stolen pickup truck Monday night after a man jumped into its bed to try to get the teen to stop, police said.

The accident about 5:30 p.m. left the maroon Toyota pickup truck, which police said had been stolen earlier Monday, resting on its roof in the middle of Pebble Beach Boulevard between Michael Way and Tequesta Road, a block of homes and apartments just south of Lake Mead Boulevard.

The man who jumped into the back of the truck, identified by police as 26-year-old Robert Walsh, was thrown from the vehicle before it rolled over.

Police said Walsh was the boyfriend of a woman who lived on Pebble Beach whose car was stolen from the area on Saturday. When he saw the teen on the street, whom he suspected of stealing the woman's car, Walsh jumped into the back of the pickup truck and tried to get him to stop, police said.

Walsh was in fair condition at University Medical Center this morning, a hospital spokeswoman said.

The 16-year-old, whose name was not released by police, wasn't hurt in the accident. He was arrested at the scene and now faces charges including possession of a stolen vehicle and theft, Metro Police Lt. Chuck Mangrum said.

Candy Hetzel, 28, ran outside when she heard a series of crashes in front of her house on Pebble Beach Boulevard around 5:20 p.m.

She opened the passenger-side door of the truck so the teen could get out and called 911 from her cell phone.

"He didn't have a scratch on him, unbelievably," Hetzel said. "He only wanted to know about the guy in the back."

Hetzel said Walsh walked away from the accident scene after the crash, which badly damaged a parked white Chevrolet pickup, and a white van parked in front of the truck.

Mangrum said the maroon pickup was stolen from The Draft House Barn & Casino on Rancho Drive sometime Monday.

The teen then apparently went to Pebble Beach Boulevard, where the woman's vehicle had been stolen Saturday, Mangrum said.

Mangrum said he wasn't sure how Walsh recognized the teen or whether the girlfriend's vehicle has been found.

Mangrum said the teen alleged that the man who jumped in the truck was trying to kill him.

But a witness who declined to give his name to the Sun said the man in the back of the truck was reaching into the driver's side window saying, 'You better stop. You better stop.' "

Then the truck swerved, struck the parked pickup truck and rolled over, the witness said.