A man has reported to police that he was punched, kicked and robbed in Palo Alto on Monday, July 10, after experiencing car problems and pulling over on Oregon Expressway, the police department announced Wednesday in a press release.
At about 3 p.m. that Monday, the man in his 30s was driving south on U.S. Highway 101 when his car began malfunctioning, police stated. He exited onto Oregon Expressway, got out of his car and was approached by two men who demanded his wallet. The pair — whom he described as black men in their 20s, one 5-feet-9-inches and about 240 pounds and the other about 6-feet and 150 pounds — then punched and kicked him, knocking him to the ground, he told police.
The robbers then took a credit card from his wallet, leaving the wallet and its other contents behind, and fled on foot, according to the press release.
The first robber is further described as being clean-shaven and wearing a white shirt, baggy blue jeans, sunglasses and an Oakland Raiders baseball-style cap. The other robber had a scruffy beard.
The man, who is not a Palo Alto resident, told investigators that he “did not consider the incident significant,” the press release states, so he returned to his car, refueled it at a nearby gas station and drove home. The next day he sought medical treatment for his injuries at a hospital whose staff called police to notify them of the crime.
Investigators have not been able to locate any witnesses to the incident. No similar robberies have been reported, police said.
Anyone with information about the assault and robbery is asked to call the department’s 24-hour dispatch center at 650-329-2413. Anonymous tips can be emailed to paloalto@tipnow.org or sent by text message or voicemail to 650-383-8984. Tips can also be submitted anonymously through the police free mobile app, downloadable at bit.ly/PAPD-AppStore or bit.ly/PAPD-GooglePlay.
This is why it is good to be familiar with some form of martial arts (at least a Brown Belt). Had that been the case, the two perpetrators would have been the ones being treated at a local hospital instead of the victim.
And what could they say? “We got beat-up while trying to rob someone?”
He was robbed, beaten, and didn’t consider the incident significant? He pulled over due to car trouble, but then after the incident drove to the gas station to refuel? Details seem missing here.
The wording used in the police press release leads me to believe that the police are skeptical about the alleged victim’s statements.
Wondering if it could have been domestic violence related but reported a day later? While the crime usually conjures up images of physically abused women, some women have been known to take it out on their husbands/boyfriends and most men are reluctant to admit that they were beaten up by a woman. Seriously.
No disrespect to the victim. It seems that he was beaten up but most likely this is not the back story. Oregon express at 3:00 pm is really busy. You cannot stop on the side of it without blocking the traffic. He is basically saying that people drove by when he was being punched and kicked and nobody saw anything unusual in that to report it to the police. And then there is the lack of an actual sidewalk for random people, to materialize from nowhere, so that they could sneak up on him. Final draw, they didn’t take the wallet or the cash but a credit card that would be reported stolen in 10 minutes.