Exclusive video: Social media prompts car chase

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- Social media prompted a high-speed chase with a wanted felon that traveled through two counties Monday.

Fresno County sheriff's deputies caught 33-year-old Christopher Chacon in a Tulare County orchard.

It all started with a woman's posts on Facebook about her stolen car. They led investigators to the car and a suspect who got away from them Sunday night. But when they found him again Monday, he couldn't escape. And it turns out, we've seen this guy before.

A fake right turn on Blackstone couldn't shake sheriff's deputies on the tail of the stolen Honda Civic. But after it was out of the frame of view of an Action News camera and on Highway 41, even deputies on the ground backed away from what was becoming a dangerous pursuit.

"Speeds were reaching as much as 100 miles an hour," said Fresno County sheriff's spokesman Chris Curtice. "The subject driving the vehicle was passing on the right shoulder, passing vehicles as he went down the freeway."

But the Eagle One helicopter kept an eye on the car and after almost an hour, CHP spiked the tires near this Tulare County orchard. The shredded tires would go no further and deputies arrested the driver before he could run away. A little while later, they had him identified.

"The suspect is a Christopher Chacon and he is 1031 has felony warrants out of Fresno," said a dispatcher's voice.

Turns out, he was a familiar face. CHP had arrested Chacon after a high-speed chase four years ago. Action News video showed him getting loaded into an ambulance. And the 33-year-old has a long history of run-ins with the law.

Sheriff's deputies say they tracked down the stolen car back Sunday night, but it slipped out of sight. Monday morning, they found it again, in west Fresno, with Chacon in the driver's seat. This second chase only happened when he noticed them closing in on him again.

"They tried to seal off the area as best as possible," said Curtice. "When they went in to make the stop on the vehicle, the subject drove away eastbound through a field and he was able to break that perimeter."

Chacon was booked into the Fresno County Jail Monday afternoon on charges of auto theft, evading arrest and violating probation.