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A man and a woman were arrested in connection with a series of car burglaries at a downtown Palo Alto parking lot, the latest one taking place on Thursday when officers found one of the alleged burglars in a car carrying two children and a loaded pistol, police said Monday.
The alleged burglars, a 20-year-old man and a 22-year-old woman from San Jose, were in a car driven by the woman who slowly traveled in loops through the parking lot at 450 Lytton Ave. around 6:40 p.m. Thursday, according to a police press release. Officers watched as the driver stopped the vehicle and the man stepped out to the lot, where he proceeded to peer inside parked cars.
They approached the man as he broke into a red Toyota RAV4 and ordered him to stop burglarizing the vehicle. The man then ran back to his getaway car, but when the driver left him behind, he headed for Lytton Avenue where officers surrounded him and arrested him without further incident, police said.
Another group of officers stopped the driver in the getaway vehicle and took the 22-year-old woman into custody. Also in the vehicle were a 2-year-old boy and a 3-year-old girl neither in seatbelts nor secured in car seats, according to police. The children weren’t far from a loaded semiautomatic pistol that officers later found was stolen out of Milpitas.
The officers also uncovered from the getaway vehicle a flashlight, window punch, industrial retail security magnet remover and property stolen from two other car burglaries at the same lot on Nov. 12 and Nov. 20.
The children were placed in the custody of a relative after officers reached out to the Santa Clara County Department of Family and Children’s Services for assistance, according to the press release.
In the two other burglaries on the Lytton Avenue lot, the pair allegedly smashed car windows and took personal property, including electronics and credit cards, police said. Investigators are looking into whether the pair is linked to other car burglaries in Palo Alto and other cities in the area.
The San Jose residents were arrested on suspicion of auto burglary, child endangerment, resisting arrest, possession of burglary tools and possession of stolen property, police said. The man was also arrested for alleged possession of a stolen firearm.
The woman, who was additionally arrested for alleged conspiracy to commit an auto burglary and identity theft, is on probation out of San Mateo County for grand theft. Investigators conducted a search of her San Jose home where they found a high capacity gun magazine police said. The Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office could issue additional charges against the woman for possessing the high capacity magazine and driving with a suspended license.
Anyone with information about the burglaries 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’s free mobile app, downloadable at bit.ly/PAPD-AppStore or bit.ly/PAPD-GooglePlay.
Editor’s note: The Weekly’s policy is to withhold the names of those arrested for most crimes until the District Attorney has determined there is sufficient evidence to file charges in the case. See our guidelines here.
If you do a Google search for “450 Lytton”, you will see numerous reports of thefts and other crimes. Does that building have surveillance cameras? Can they do more to deter crime? I’m glad that the police are doing something, but the property owner needs to do more to protect the employees and customers of the businesses at that address.
^ Lytton/Kipling, behind 7-11, Public Parking Lot “T”, surface lot, not a building.
At least our Apple Store on University is being monitored more closely.
Nobody yet has broken into the PAPD vehicle often parked out front on the curb.
So far Walmart is doing more with their goofy light trailers and cameras in their parking lot than Palo Alto is in that lot that has been nearly pitch black at night for 30+ years. But hey, those old street lights that flooded the streets in a sickly yellow hue have been replaced by bright, white led light–
directly underneath the light posts.
I’m most concerned about the fact that one of the perps had her two toddlers in the vehicle. I’m so glad that the PAPD (unlike the SFPD) actually follows up on “property crimes” which, as in this case, can lead to discovery of even more serious offenses.
Where do the couple at this young age and the children go from here! Alternatively, they could have gone and signed up with Amazon (or similar) that is hiring in Bay Area for warehouse duties. I am sure they could have made more money than trading stolen properties. So, the opportunities are here but the problem is lack of any motivation (or maybe guidance).
Concerned,
Drugs tend to warp your values.
There is a case of two children being in a car and shot and killed. I am so pleased nothing similar happened here.
Gun violence often starts will guns being in the wrong place in the hands of the wrong people. The wrong place is always near children and the wrong people are always those looking after children.
Good work by PAPD, they are real heroes for saving those two kids. Those kids deserve to grow up in a caring environment not surrounded by drugs, crime, and loaded handguns.
One open question once again is why criminals from all over flock to Palo Alto to commit robbery, burglary, and other crimes. I speculate it’s because we have a high density of out-of-town visitors who are not accustomed to local safety precautions, like not leaving valuables in cars. Local hotels should do a better job to inform their guests.
Good work PAPD. Now all my Palo Alto people. Put all your belongings in the trunk of your car. Hit the little button on your key chain and get it done. It takes 2min if that. It will keep scum like this away from are neighborhood. Palo Alto has a rep for not locking its doors and leaving their things of value out in the open.
Amazon drug tests and these waste of space dont want to work. Plain and simple.
“Palo Alto has a rep for not locking its doors and leaving their things of value out in the open.”
With who and based on what verifiable information?
Heartbreaking.
Remember to lock your valuables in the trunk before you get to a parking lot so would-be thieves don’t watch and then follow up by stealing your stuff as soon as you walk away.
> One open question once again is why criminals from all over flock to Palo Alto to commit robbery, burglary, and other crimes.
^^^Perceived affluence of the PA community as a whole & its general aversion to gun ownership.
Prospective criminals have only the PAPD to contend with & the police cannot be in two places at once.
The child endangerment factor involving this incident is especially disturbing & a clear-cut example of reckless/irresponsible adult behavior on the part of the suspects.
Can our city sue all these thieves for $500,000 each?
Sure we wouldn’t collect anything but might balance the headlines
and persuade others to try elsewhere in the future.
Or they can just continue laughing in our collective face.
So are they still in custody?