At least two men were arrested early Monday morning following a high-speed chase that started in Landers and ended in a residential neighborhood in Yucca Valley. Just after 10 p.m. Sunday night, a man called deputies to report he had been robbed by an armed suspect. The man said his car had broken down on the side of Old Woman Springs Road near New Dixie Mine Road. According to a police report, a car containing Michael Riddle, 19, and Albert Villareal, 23, both of Landers, and possibly one other man, stopped to offer their help. The victim told deputies that one of the men lifted his shirt to show a gun in his waistband, and then the suspect took the victim’s car’s battery, along with two tool bags. The suspects then sped off southbound on Old Woman Springs Road. Deputies and CHP officers located the vehicle and began a pursuit that went into Yucca Valley onto Yucca Trail, Navajo, Pueblo, Santa Fe Trails, before ending in the Apache Mobile Home Park. Riddle and Villareal fled the vehicle, but deputies later apprehended them in the 7000 block of Mohawk Trail about 10:30 p.m. Albert Villareal was arrested on suspicion of robbery, burglary, and bringing a controlled substance into jail when he was booked into the Morongo Basin Jail. His bail is set at $225,000. Michael Riddle was arrested for investigation of armed robbery, felony evading with disregard for public safety, and violating the terms of his probation, booked into the Morongo Basin Jail, and is being held on a no-bail warrant. In May 2016, Michael Riddle pleaded guilty to an armed robbery of the Flyers Gas Station in Yucca Valley and was sentenced to one year in county jail.
