Police: U-Haul found abandoned after Petaluma motorcycle heist, highway escape

Four days after a burglar escaped with $38,000 worth of motorcycles and eluded a police chase, and two days after the rental truck used in the robbery was found in San Francisco, local law agencies are continuing to search for suspects.

The abandoned U-Haul box truck found near the former Candlestick Park has been dusted for fingerprints and DNA.

The incident began just before 10 p.m. Sunday when Petaluma police received a call of a U-Haul truck that had been backed up to the side of K&B Motorsports of Petaluma and had fled with its cargo ramp dragging on the road.

The truck was last seen turning westbound on Oak Street from the store’s 326 Petaluma Blvd. N. location.

Petaluma police failed to stop the truck as it headed eastbound on Washington Street.

Police chased the driver at 60 mph through a commercial zone before the U-Haul merged onto southbound Highway 101. At Nave Drive, the CHP joined the chase and later took sole control, pursuing the truck across the Golden Gate Bridge and asking San Francisco police for assistance. A CHP helicopter lost sight of the truck when it drove beneath an overpass near 13th and Howard streets.

Five off-road motorcycles were taken: a Kawaskai KX100, a Kawasaki KX450, a Yamaha KX450, a KTM 350 XC-F and a KTM 350 SX-F.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Sonoma County Auto Theft Taskforce Detective Adam Wirtz at 565-1377.

You can reach Staff Writer Christi Warren at 521-5205 or christi.warren@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @SeaWarren.