By Mary O’KEEFE

Shortly after midnight on Monday morning neighbors in the area of the 2700 block of Piedmont and Hermosa avenues awoke to the sound of helicopters and sirens.

It all began at about 12:10 a.m. on Sunday night in Sierra Madre when Sierra Madre Police Dept. officers attempted to conduct a traffic stop. The male driver of the vehicle decided not to stop and a pursuit began that continued through the streets of Sierra Madre, onto the westbound Foothill [210] Freeway and, finally, to the 2700 block of Piedmont where the vehicle chase ended. But the driver fled, according to Sgt. Charles Kamchamnan, Sierra Madre Police Dept.

Around 12:30 a.m. a resident (who wishes to remain anonymous) near the pursuit endpoint heard a helicopter overhead and went out onto the balcony of the residence to see what was going on. The resident then heard “rustling” behind a wall separating his/her property from a neighbor’s.

The resident realized that the police were looking for someone and thought the person they were looking for might be making that rustling noise. The resident called the Glendale Police Dept. and told them the person they were looking for might be close to his/her address.

“I then saw this guy hop over the fence,” the resident said.

The suspect was now in his/her yard.

“I had surveillance cameras so I was able to track [the suspect and] tell police he hadn’t left the property,” the resident added.

This search, according to the resident, took about an hour and a half, which is about how long the suspect had apparently hid in the neighbor’s trash bin.

“He was found in a dumpster,” confirmed Kamchamnan.

According to Kamchamnan the vehicle the suspect was driving had been reported stolen out of Pomona. The suspect, in his late 20s, was arrested for felony evading and possession of a stolen vehicle. A female passenger was arrested but later released. There were no charges against her.

Glendale Police Dept., Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Dept., and air support from Pasadena Police Dept. assisted Sierra Madre in the pursuit, search and arrest.