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CANANDAIGUA - A parolee and his girlfriend, both wanted on felony warrants in the Buffalo area, led several officers on a high-speed chase through the city yesterday in an allegedly stolen car.

The chase of the Pontiac Sunbird ended just north of the intersection of Buffalo Street and North Bloomfield Road, where the driver mowed down a stop sign, hit the curb, and blew both tires.

Ray Triplett, who lives just across the street, was sitting at his front window at the time.

He heard the car hit the sign, saw both the driver and passenger jump out, and then heard the wail of sirens.

"I'm thinking, 'Oh no, it couldn't be (a chase),' but it was," he said.

Sue Beeman, who lives three houses north of the intersection, was reading a book when she heard the Sunbird speed around the corner.

"I was thinking, 'Where's a cop when you need one?' " said Beeman, who soon heard the sirens and saw "cops going this way and that way."

Triplett said the driver took off running and "left his poor girlfriend behind." She ran, too, but Investigator Scott Lambert of the Canandaigua Police Department was close behind, and soon caught up with her.

"(Lambert) was right on them. I knew he was going to catch her," said Triplett, who by this point had grabbed his video camera to capture the action.

The driver ran through the back yards between Buffalo Street and Dorset Drive.

Police Sgt. Charles Bardeen said officers surrounded the area and searched each yard, one by one, checking inside sheds, garages and even treehouses.

At 53 Dorset Drive, which is close to Arlington Park, the sergeant noticed that a back door to a garage was closed, but unlocked. He went inside and found the man hiding among items stored there.

Both Bardeen and Lt. Mike Hayes of the Ontario County Sheriff's Office took the man into custody at gunpoint.

The sergeant said the man, 34-year-old Jose Rivera of Buffalo, was wanted on a felony violation of parole. He'd been paroled from prison after serving time on an assault conviction.

Rivera's girlfriend, Nicole Zimbardi, 36, of Buffalo, was also wanted on warrants out of the Buffalo area, including one for grand larceny, which is a felony.

Police in the Buffalo area had contacted Canandaigua police, letting them know that the two might be picking up Zimbardi's young son yesterday at a South Main Street apartment, so police were watching the apartment.

Shortly before 10 a.m., just as Bardeen was approaching a child protective worker who'd come to the apartment, the couple arrived in the Sunbird, which had been reported as stolen.

Bardeen believes they saw the child protective worker, just before he saw them drive out of an alley next to the apartment. "I started running for my police car," he said.

Rivera took a right on Clark Street and took that to South Pearl Street, where he headed north.

Bardeen said Hayes - the sheriff's lieutenant one day shy of retirement - attempted to set up a roadblock.

"They almost ran into him, head on, at 60 to 75 miles per hour," the sergeant said.

Police Investigator Mike Colacino estimated that the car was traveling about 80 mph when it went past Rank's IGA, at the intersection with West Avenue.

"The way he was driving, he's lucky he didn't hit somebody," Colacino said. "I've never seen a car go by me so fast."

Triplett, the man who watched after Rivera lost control at the corner of Buffalo and North Bloomfield, agreed it was surprising no one got hurt.

"Thank God nobody was at that corner. He would have wiped them out," he said.

Rivera, who will get several traffic tickets, and Zimbardi were already the subject of a Canandaigua police investigation.

Lambert said that about a week ago, a couple stole a woman's purse from a shopping cart at Wegmans, then used her credit cards and checks at other stores in the area. The investigator had video surveillance pictures of the two but didn't know their names.

"It's just amazing sometimes how things come together," he said. "Everything just gelled."

The sheriff's office and residents in the Buffalo Street area helped police capture the couple, according to Bardeen.

"Several of (the residents) came out and pointed which direction he was running, which helped us pinpoint the area," he said.

According to Lambert, the stolen purse was found in the stolen car. He charged both Rivera and Zimbardi with fourth-degree grand larceny and second-degree forgery, which are felonies.

Bail for Zimbardi was set at $25,000 cash, and Rivera was jailed without bail. Both were to appear in City Court today.

Preston Barr, who lives at the house where Rivera was found, returned late in the afternoon, unaware police had arrested a parolee at gunpoint in his garage. He had taken his grandmother on errands in the morning and said his sister and her fiance, who work the night shift, apparently slept through the whole thing.

"It's all kind of crazy," he said.

�Daily Messenger 2002

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