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LOS ANGELES -- A burglary suspect who barricaded himself in a storm drain beneath the 405 Freeway was finally surrendered after a 12-hour standoff.
The incident brought traffic to a standstill on southbound Interstate 405 at Roscoe Blvd. just after 3 a.m. Tuesday.
The carpool lanes and No. 1 lane were reopened just before 5 a.m., but the right three lanes remained closed through mid-afternoon.
Police were initially chasing two suspects accused of robbing a nearby warehouse on the west side of the freeway around 2 a.m.
One suspect was quickly taken into custody but another jumped into a storm drain that runs beneath the freeway and has an opening on the northbound side.
Los Angeles City Fire crews, including an urban search-and-rescue unit, aided in the efforts to extricate the man from the pipe, which measured 18 inches wide by 80 feet long.
Authorities say the suspect resisted multiple applications of tear gas, a police dog, negotiators and an improvised plunger. "We stopped (the tear gas) because we thought he'd suffocate to death. Just the way he resisted the tear gas was amazing," Deputy Police Chief Michel Moore said.
At one point, the suspect cut through a climbing rope that was threaded through the pipe.
Just as firefighters were about to send another rope through, police say, the man called his girlfriend on his cell phone.
"He's 30 feet underground, and somehow he has cell coverage," Moore said.
The girlfriend contacted a local news station, and one of the station's reporters was able to convince the man to surrender, Moore said.
The man apparently waited so long to leave the pipe because he didn't want to lose his freedom.
He emerged from the bottom of the hole dirty, shirtless and scratched. He handed his knife over to police, who had their weapons drawn.
The man, who identified himself as Shawn, was arrested on suspicion of burglary.
Police said they believed the two men were after copper wiring inside the vacant business.
Officers searched the warehouse, aided by police dogs, but no other suspect was found.
The incident brought traffic to a standstill on southbound Interstate 405 at Roscoe Blvd. just after 3 a.m. Tuesday.
The carpool lanes and No. 1 lane were reopened just before 5 a.m., but the right three lanes remained closed through mid-afternoon.
Police were initially chasing two suspects accused of robbing a nearby warehouse on the west side of the freeway around 2 a.m.
One suspect was quickly taken into custody but another jumped into a storm drain that runs beneath the freeway and has an opening on the northbound side.
Los Angeles City Fire crews, including an urban search-and-rescue unit, aided in the efforts to extricate the man from the pipe, which measured 18 inches wide by 80 feet long.
Authorities say the suspect resisted multiple applications of tear gas, a police dog, negotiators and an improvised plunger. "We stopped (the tear gas) because we thought he'd suffocate to death. Just the way he resisted the tear gas was amazing," Deputy Police Chief Michel Moore said.
At one point, the suspect cut through a climbing rope that was threaded through the pipe.
Just as firefighters were about to send another rope through, police say, the man called his girlfriend on his cell phone.
"He's 30 feet underground, and somehow he has cell coverage," Moore said.
The girlfriend contacted a local news station, and one of the station's reporters was able to convince the man to surrender, Moore said.
The man apparently waited so long to leave the pipe because he didn't want to lose his freedom.
He emerged from the bottom of the hole dirty, shirtless and scratched. He handed his knife over to police, who had their weapons drawn.
The man, who identified himself as Shawn, was arrested on suspicion of burglary.
Police said they believed the two men were after copper wiring inside the vacant business.
Officers searched the warehouse, aided by police dogs, but no other suspect was found.
