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It sounded like a commercial for OnStar, but it was real.

Authorities Sunday said a Chevrolet pickup truck carjacked in San Dimas was located using the OnStar service, which remotely slowed the vehicle on the Orange (57) Freeway in Placentia, prompting the suspect to surrender to pursuing deputies.

The carjacking happened outside a Red Robin restaurant in the 500 block of West Arrow Highway, Lt. Tonya Edwards of the sheriff’s San Dimas Station said.

The suspect, a man in his 20s, attacked a 74-year-old man, who fought back but was overpowered and unable to keep the younger man from taking the truck, Edwards said.

Authorities were notified of the Saturday evening carjacking minutes after it happened through OnStar, according to Lt. David Buckner, watch commander of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Walnut Station, whose deputies assisted in taking the suspect into custody.

OnStar Corporation is a General Motors subsidiary whose subscription-based service provides vehicles with communications, navigation, security and remote diagnostics.

An OnStar operator provided the sheriff’s department with “up-to-the-moment locations” of the white pickup truck, which was remotely slowed to about 5 mph after deputies “got a visual” on the vehicle as it headed south on the freeway.

It stopped just north of the Riverside (91) Freeway about 8 p.m. and the suspect got out and surrendered, Buckner said.

The suspect would be booked on suspicion of carjacking, according to Edwards.

“He stole the wrong vehicle,” Buckner said.

The California Highway Patrol backed up sheriff’s deputies during the pursuit, Buckner said.

— Staff and wire reports

OnStar remotely slows carjacked pickup, suspect arrested was last modified: by

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