A 28-year-old man taking out the trash at his Makiki apartment at about 11:18 p.m. last night noticed a stranger in his truck last night, setting off a confrontation that sent him to the hospital and a police search for three auto theft suspects, police said.

The man started walking towards his truck when a woman in her 30s, apparently a lookout, grabbed him and tried to distract him from the apparent theft in progress, police said.

The man broke free and grabbed the door of his truck in an attempt to trap the suspect in his truck, police said. The suspect, a man in his 30s or 40s, smashed the driver’s side window of the truck and threw a pipe wrench at the truck owner striking him in the chin, police said. A fight broke out and the suspect, his female accomplice and another man, also in his 30s or 40s, ran away. The truck owner was taken to the Queen’s Medical Center. Police did not say what his injuries or condition was.