LOS ANGELES—A parolee was sentenced Dec. 2 to 34 months in federal prison for stealing a military Humvee worth more than $200,000 from an Army Reserve Center in Upland and leading police on a brief chase.
Armando Garcia, 30, of Pomona pleaded guilty in August to a federal charge of theft of United States government property. At the time of the offense, Garcia was on parole for a 2019 conviction of state theft and burglary charges, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Garcia stole a militarized High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle—commonly known as a Humvee—on Nov. 9, 2020.
Soon after he drove off with the semi-armored combat vehicle with a turret mount, Pomona Police Department officers attempted to make a traffic stop of the unlicensed vehicle.
Garcia “fled, leading the officers on a roughly four-minute high-speed chase during which (he) drove on the wrong side of the road, blew through multiple red lights and stops signs, swerved across the road and drove through several narrow alleys before ultimately giving up,” prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memorandum filed in Los Angeles federal court.
Garcia stopped the Humvee in front of a residence on East Kingsley Avenue in Pomona, where he was taken into custody without further incident.
Inside the Humvee, police found a large pair of bolt cutters and an Army-approved padlock that appeared to have been cut, according to the complaint.
