A West Haven man who police say stole an SUV in that city and then avoided capture by police along the shoreline Wednesday finally surrendered in a wooded area of Old Lyme when a state trooper threatened to send in his K-9 partner.

Manuel Aviles, 36, was charged with larceny of a motor vehicle, interfering with a police officer and second-degree breach of peace. He was scheduled to be arraigned Thursday in London Superior Court.

According to state police, at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday West Haven police reported that a man had stolen a black Jeep Grand Cherokee and was driving toward Guilford. An alert was put out to officers.

Clinton police saw the Jeep, but it got away. Old Saybrook police obtained a photo of the driver from staff at a local gas station, who said the man had been asking people for gas money.

At 7:33 p.m., troopers responded to Lyme Street in Old Lyme after a person called and said they’d seen a man lying on the ground near the exit 70 off-ramp from southbound Interstate 95 and tried to help. But when they did, the man tried to steal their car.

When troopers arrived, the man, later identified as Aviles, had already fled into the woods, where rustling noises could be heard. A trooper told Aviles to stop running and come out of the woods, but he refused. The trooper then threatened to deploy K-9 Rocco. Aviles pleaded with the trooper not to do so and agreed to leave the woods and surrender.

Police then learned that it was Aviles who stole the Jeep, which he said he abandoned on the highway just before exit 70. Troopers found it there with a flat tire.