MORENO VALLEY: Police canines follow the trail of a man authorities say carjacked a vehicle.
MORENO VALLEY - A Santa Ana man suspected in a carjacking was found hiding in a restroom by two police dogs and was taken into custody Monday night, authorities said. Francisco Javier Gonzalez, 29, was taken by ambulance to Riverside County Regional Medical Center following his arrest and remained there Tuesday with facial injuries and dog bites, Moreno Valley Police Sgt. Lori Marquette said. He will eventually be booked into Robert Presley Detention Center and is facing carjacking and kidnapping charges, authorities said in a news release. Gonzalez was found in the bathroom of a makeshift construction-office trailer behind the Foothill Baptist Church in the 21000 block of Box Springs Road. Abbigail, a 1½-year-old bloodhound assigned to Riverside County Sheriff's Department Deputy Coby Webb, and Rocky, a 3-year-old Belgian Malanois, tracked Gonzalez to the trailer after police found a blood-stained shirt in the parking lot. "It was just incredible," Marquette said. "The dogs smelled the shirt and immediately tracked the suspect to that building. The capability these dogs have to smell is a million times better than ours. They're a valuable tool to law enforcement." Police say a man approached two Moreno Valley residents, who at about 6:30 p.m. were installing a car radio in a 1993 Honda Prelude at the Highland Meadows Apartments on Pigeon Pass Road. Police said he simulated a handgun under his shirt and asked the two men to drive him to an undisclosed location. The two men fled after driving a short distance, police said, and the man drove off in the Prelude. More than an hour later, the Prelude crashed into a dirt pile on the left side of westbound Highway 60, and the man fled.