RV Driver Chased for 50 Miles, Surrenders

In a televised chase only slightly faster than the infamous pursuit involving a Ford Bronco, a man suspected of stealing a motor home in Huntington Beach led police on a 50-mile trip Tuesday afternoon up the San Diego Freeway to his home in Van Nuys before pulling to the curb, flopping spread-eagle on the pavement and surrendering.

The leisurely chase--carried live on at least three local television stations--averaged about 50 mph.

Pursuing highway patrol officers kept traffic back at a safe distance, giving the lumbering mobile home a clear path through the few vehicles it managed to overtake.

The suspect, identified as Robert Bean, 37, never appeared to exceed the speed limit and stopped at several intersections, apparently to obey traffic signals.

Moments before his arrest, Bean stopped to talk to his mother, Mary Henriksen, who was standing in front of their modest house on a side street near Van Nuys Airport. Police stayed back a respectful distance. The heavyset suspect then drove another block, stopped, got out and flung himself face down on the pavement.

Lying on the ground, Bean hitched up his pants and rose on one elbow for a second to put on his baseball cap. He flopped back down and, moments later, police surrounded and handcuffed him.

As police prepared to drive Bean away for booking, the bearded, gap-toothed suspect laughed and shouted, “I’m going to Disneyland!”

Bean was booked on suspicion of evading arrest and possession of a stolen vehicle.

Huntington Beach police said the incident began early Tuesday morning, after a nighttime fishing trip at Huntington Harbour, when Bean and a woman friend, Helen Masters, 35, began to argue beside her parked motor home.

“One thing led to another, and the male struck the female,” said Huntington Beach Police Lt. Jim Cutshaw. “After she collected herself, she noticed that he was in the driver’s seat of the motor home. He told her, ‘You’ll never see the motor home again.’ ”

About noon, a woman who knew of the alleged theft called Huntington Beach police and told them she had just seen the missing motor home. A motorcycle officer spotted the vehicle, which turned onto the northbound 405 Freeway. California Highway Patrol units gave chase.

For the next hour, the motor home chugged steadily northwest on the freeway at about 50 mph, trailed by three CHP cars, various police aircraft and the helicopters of at least three local television stations. The trip went along a section of the route followed by then-murder suspect O.J. Simpson and his driver, Al “A.C.” Cowlings, during their infamous low-speed pursuit by police officers in 1994.

The motor home continued past Brentwood, site of the Simpson estate, finally turning off the freeway at Sherman Way and following a meandering route west to Bean’s home on Gault Street.

Interviewed after her son’s arrest, Henriksen said he suffers from diabetes and had not taken prescribed medication for several days.

Times staff writer Thao Hua in Orange County contributed to this story.