CAR STOLEN IN TWENTYNINE PALMS STOPPED IN YUCCA VALLEY

A Desert Hot Springs man in a stolen car was arrested at gunpoint in Yucca Valley early Tuesday morning. According to a Sheriff’s report, an employee at the Twentynine Palms Holiday Inn called deputies at 1:54 a.m. because she just saw someone driving her 2005 black Monte Carlo out of the hotel’s parking lot and drive westbound on the highway. Three hours later, a deputy in Yucca Valley saw a car that matched the description of the stolen vehicle driving westbound on the highway at Trojan Lane. The deputy followed as the driver, later identified as James Alford, 46, turned north onto Cholla Avenue and parked in front of a house in the 7000 block. After confirming the car was the one reported stolen a few hours earlier, the deputy contacted Alford at gunpoint. The deputy states that Alford admitted that he gave a woman some methamphetamine in exchange for the vehicle, and that he was on his way to Desert Hot Springs. James Alford was arrested for investigation of possession of a stolen vehicle, booked into the Morongo Basin Jail, with his bail set at $50,000.