Man Arrested For Sausalito Mail Thefts, Driving Wrong Way On Highway 101

SAUSALITO (CBS SF) – Police in Sausalito on Wednesday arrested a man suspected of multiple mail thefts Wednesday and for driving the wrong way on Highway 101 in an attempt to evade authorities.

Officers were called to the 500 block of Olima Street around 7:45 a.m. after an eyewitness reported of someone breaking into at least six mailboxes in the area.

The witness described the suspect's vehicle as a gray Range Rover SUV with paper plates, which also matched the description of a vehicle linked to other recent mail thefts in the community, police said.

An officer spotted the Range Rover nearby at the Eden Roc complex and attempted a traffic stop. Police said the vehicle did not stop at multiple stop signs and stop lights. The chase was called off when the vehicle entered Highway 101 in the wrong direction, traveling southbound in the northbound lanes.

Another officer spotted the Range Rover exiting at Rodeo Avenue at a high rate of speed, nearly striking his patrol vehicle, police said.

Police eventually found the vehicle at the Sausalito Towers and two people who were walking from the area. The subjects, a 30-year-old man from Berkeley and a 30-year-old woman from San Francisco, were detained for further questioning.

During a search of the vehicle, stolen property, mail and drug paraphernalia were found, police said. The man, identified as Michael Winchester, was booked into the Marin County Jail on suspicion of petty theft, evading and resisting arrest, reckless driving and failure to yield to an emergency vehicle.

Police said the woman was released without charges.

It was not immediately known when Winchester would appear in court on the charges.

Police said the investigation is ongoing.