By Hector Gonzalez
Special to The Lookout

December 24, 2015 -- Perhaps trying to score a last-minute holiday gift, a man armed with a knife car-jacked a Maserati on a busy West Los Angeles street Thursday then fled from pursuing police until he finally crashed into a parked car in Santa Monica, police said.

Around 10:30 a.m., the knief-weilding thief stole the exotic vehicle in the 2200 block of Sepulveda Boulvard, said Sgt. Trisha Karandy, a watch commander at the Los Angeles Police Department's West L.A. Division.

About an hour and a half later, LAPD officers spotted the Maserati and gave chase, Karandy told the Lookout.

Officers pursued the supect into Santa Monica, where the car crashed into at least one vehicle parked in the 1600 block of California Avenue, she said.

The driver then got out of the car and ran, but officers caught him a short distance away, near Wilshire.

The man, whose name was not immediately released, was booked on on suspicion of assault and car-jacking, Karandy said.

She described the chase through Los Angeles into Santa Monica as a slow-speed pursuit, not exceeding 35 mph.

A witness at the scene told the Lookout that the Marserati and a parked Honda the driver hit both received major body damage.

“The Maserati was smashed all along the right side and had both wheels ripped off. The Honda was smashed on the right side,” said a witness who was visiting a friend who lives on California between 18th and 17th streets and saw the aftermath of the crash.

The witness, who asked not be identified, said he spoke to several officers at the scene who said the Maserati's fleeing driver was speeding as he entered California, heading west, with police following close behind.

“It hit the dip at 18th Street and California, lost control and hit the Honda and the car next to it then proceeded to rotate for another entire block,” he said. “There's no way any car going 35 mph is going to spin around and continue for another block and a half.”

No one was injuried, Karandy said, including the Maserati's owner threatened at gunpoint.