Last Updated on February 22, 2018 by CCAR Staff
A Fontana probationer was arrested after Fontana police said he carjacked a Lyft driver from Rancho Cucamonga, officials said.
Ernest Thomas, 33, was arrested early Wednesday morning on suspicion of carjacking and possession of stolen property, according to booking logs, for the Tuesday night theft.
Around 9 p.m., a 41-year-old Rancho Cucamonga man working as a Lyft driver, picked up a rider in Upland who asked for a ride to Fontana, officials said.
When the driver pulled into a hotel parking lot in the 17100 block of Valley Boulevard, the rider, later identified as Thomas,”pressed an object against the driver’s neck and ordered him out of the vehicle,” the police statement said.
The 41-year-old got out of the vehicle and Thomas drove off in his 2015 Toyota, Sienna minivan.
“Responding officers sent out a request to surrounding agencies to be on the lookout for the vehicle,” the news release said.
Around 5:30 a.m. the following day, deputies from the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department spotted the vehicle with Thomas inside and alerted Fontana police, officials said.
Police investigators determined Thomas had been the person who carjacked the Lyft driver and arrested him in the 6600 block of Valeria Drive in Fontana, officials and booking records show. Investigators also learned he was on community release probation at the time of his arrest.
Anyone with information on this case is asked to call the Fontana Police Department at 909-356-7148.
