Police chase 5 suspects running across 210 Freeway lanes after Tesla break-in

Police arrested six people suspected of breaking into a Tesla building, with five of them leading officers on a dangerous chase across 210 Freeway lanes in San Bernardino County.

In a post to X on Thursday, the Upland Police Department said it received a call from a monitoring company watching the burglary in progress at Tesla around 4:53 a.m. on Wednesday. The caller said five people had just broken into the building.

Upland PD said officers converged on the area and immediately set up a perimeter, summoned their K9 Rudy, launched a drone and requested additional officers for backup from multiple agencies.

“One of our officers spotted a Camry with no plates creeping up Campus Ave. above Tesla and stopped it,” wrote Upland PD. “Upon contact, a loaded magazine was seen in the car and the solo driver couldn’t explain why he was in the area.” 

Police said they detained the suspect while other officers continued working on the five outstanding suspects.

“The 5 suspects then exited the Tesla building, jumped a south fence toward the 210, and hunkered down in the embankment under some bushes,” stated Upland PD’s post. “Being that our drone has thermal imaging, these guys were not hard to spot.”

The police department detailed that as officers arrived on the scene, all five suspects got up and started running southbound across the westbound lanes of the 210 Freeway.

Officers arrived on the westbound freeway to stop traffic and set up a perimeter.

Officials said officers managed to quickly detain three suspects after a short foot pursuit, but that two suspects continued southbound across eastbound lanes of traffic.

“Our drone operator was able to keep watch on the final 2 suspects and guided officers into the residential community west of Kohls where one of them started jumping fences,” said Upland PD.

Police said motor officers “swooped in” and found the fence-hopping suspect as he came over what turned out to be his final fence.

“The final suspect was spotted at 19th Street and Campus Avenue and decided he wasn’t done running,” continued Upland PD. “He led 2 of our officers on a foot pursuit that ended near the El Pollo Loco.”

With the final suspect captured, police announced they booked all the suspects – only identified as six adults from Los Angeles County – on felony commercial burglary, and “a slew of other charges.”