At about 11:24pm Thursday night, Turlock Police Officer Kauffman attempted to make a traffic stop on a vehicle at Vermont Avenue and S. Laurel Street.
The vehicle was being driven without any registration tabs attached to its rear license plate.
One of the occupants exited the vehicle as it stopped, before it drove away at a high rate of speed, failing to stop for Kauffman’s red light and siren.
The pursuit went southbound Lander Avenue and eventually hopped onto southbound State Route 99, before exiting in Delhi.
After a few minutes of driving around Delhi, the vehicle hopped back onto northbound State Route 99 and reentered Turlock.
The Stanislaus County Sheriff’s helicopter got overhead and provided aerial support as the pursuit made its way through Turlock.
As the pursued vehicle approached the roundabout at N. Berkeley Avenue and Chandler Drive, it crashed into it and became disabled.
A high-risk stop was then conducted where the vehicle’s three occupants were detained at gunpoint.
All of the vehicle’s three occupants were asked to identify themselves, including the driver. He identified himself as a relative, but officers discovered he was lying when they checked the relative’s booking photo.
Officers were eventually able to identify the driver as Adam Vargas, 40, of Delhi. He turned out to have a no-bail felony bench warrant out of Stanislaus County for auto theft, and was also on probation for the same charge.
During a subsequent search of the vehicle, officers located evidence of possible financial crimes being committed. Follow-up will be conducted at a later time.
None of the vehicle’s occupants were its owner and it came back registered to a business address, so officers were unable to contact its owner to verify it wasn’t stolen. It was towed away.
Vargas was arrested and booked into the Stanislaus County Public Safety Center on charges of fleeing from a peace officer by vehicle with disregard for public safety and false personation, as well as his warrant.
Vargas’ two passengers were released.
