Driver Leaves Evidence Behind After Hit, Run

NORTH HOLLYWOOD — A driver who crashed his pickup truck into a car Monday afternoon and then fled left something behind--his bumper, with license plate attached.

Usually, hit-and-run drivers don’t leave such obvious evidence, said Los Angeles Police Officer Dan Henry.

“It doesn’t happen too often but it does happen,” Henry said.

The incident began when Norman and Jackie Lowenstein of Sherman Oaks were driving west in a 1994 Pontiac Grand Prix on the 13000 block of Vanowen Street. They were broadsided by a green, late-model Ford pickup attempting to make a left turn, Henry said.

The Lowensteins’ car crashed through a wrought iron fence and hit the side of St. Paul Assyrian Church. The couple were not injured.

The pickup driver fled, but left the truck’s front bumper and license plate in the road, Henry said. Norman Lowenstein held onto them until police arrived.

Los Angeles Police Department traffic investigators tracked the plate to a residence in downtown Los Angeles and will question the truck’s owner in the next day or two, Henry said.