Police called off drug bust to aid pursuit

A suspected drug user got a lucky break early Friday morning when police officers who were chasing him through a Costa Mesa neighborhood had to abandon the effort to help Newport Beach police in a vehicle pursuit that had crossed into Costa Mesa.

Police were called to the 3100 block of College Avenue in Costa Mesa at 12:13 a.m. Friday to a report of a suspicious person sitting in the car. When police arrived, they confronted the man and suspected that he was under the influence of methamphetamines. When the officers began to pat him down to check for weapons, he took off running, Costa Mesa Police Sgt. Marty Carver Said.

The two officers chased after him and one of the officers fell and scraped his elbow, Carver said.

But the chase didn’t get very far. Just as the officers had set up a perimeter and were conducting a yard-to-yard search, they were sent to assist Newport Beach police with a vehicle pursuit nearby, Carver said.

The suspected drug user got away.

“His timing was good,” Costa Mesa Lt. Dale Birney said.

Newport Beach police were chasing two men in a dark green Jeep Cherokee who were fleeing from police after being spotted breaking into garages in a Newport Beach neighborhood.

A neighbor in the Dover Shores area of Newport Beach called police after seeing two men searching a garage and car with a flashlight and driving through the neighborhood with their headlights off, Newport Beach Sgt. Mark Everton said.

Newport Beach police followed the car into Costa Mesa, where the men bailed out of the car at Hanover Drive and Fairview Road, near the area where the Costa Mesa officers had been searching for the suspected drug user.

One of the suspected burglars was taken into custody immediately; the second was found hiding in a garbage can, Everton said.

Costa Mesa police were extremely helpful in assisting in the arrests, Everton said.

“They were kind enough to forget what they were doing [and] rearrange their perimeter,” Everton said.

The two men, Ryan David Genetti, 23, of Encinitas and Adam Levi Throp, 28, of Aliso Viejo were arrested on suspicion of residential burglary. Police later recovered various items, including golf clubs and power tools, that the men had allegedly stolen from garages in the 1800 block of Galaxy Drive in Newport Beach.