After police pursuit, stolen big rig crashes into Chino house

A police pursuit in Chino ended with a stolen big rig crashing into a house and the driver in custody over the weekend, authorities said.

The semitruck owner called the Pomona Police Department at 12:19 p.m. Saturday to report he had witnessed his vehicle being stolen from a Montclair tire shop and said he was following it through the streets of Pomona.

Police took over the pursuit and tried to pull over the driver, who authorities said did not stop.

After traveling a short distance, the driver lost control of the semitruck at Philadelphia Street and Pipeline Avenue, police spokesperson Aly Mejia said. He struck a utility pole, several parked vehicles and a cinderblock wall before crashing into a house, Mejia said.

The Chino Valley Fire District was dispatched to the crash scene minutes later, at 12:25 p.m.

No one was inside the home at the time of the crash, and nobody was injured, the fire district said. But the house was significantly damaged, and the residents of the rental property had to be relocated, authorities said. First responders built a shoring structure to support the roof above where the truck destroyed an exterior wall.

“The structure isn’t safe for people to be inhabiting it,” fire district spokesperson Massiel De Guevara said.

The damage to the utility pole caused several homes in the neighborhood to lose power, police said.

The truck’s driver, identified as 27-year-old Chino resident Matthew Paul Gonzalez, was arrested at the scene on suspicion of grand theft auto. Pomona police took him to a hospital, where he was cleared, before he was taken into custody.