Teen Caught Driving Stolen Car During Robbery Probe

The search for the armed man who held up Pajaro Food Center on Tuesday evening failed to net the robber, but a 16-year-old Watsonville boy driving a stolen car was caught in the police dragnet, authorities reported.

Officers were searching for a white Toyota Camry following the robbery, reported about 10 minutes before 6 p.m. The car apparently fled across the Pajaro River and into Watsonville, according to the Monterey County Sheriff's Office.

Just before 6 p.m., Watsonville police officers found a similar car parked near Pelican Drive and Egret Lane. The car had been reported stolen to the California Highway Patrol about an hour before the robbery, police said.

Monterey County deputies were on their way when the teenage boy got into the stolen car and drove away. Officers followed it and pulled over the car at gunpoint near Green Valley Road and Silverleaf Drive, police reported.

The teen was not linked to the robbery, which Watsonville police reported involved the robber threatening cashiers with a shotgun. However, he was arrested for several felonies, including possessing a stolen property and possessing a stolen vehicle, police said.

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