Police Investigating Incident of Roadside Necklace Theft
Published on October 25, 2021
Palo Alto, CA – Police are investigating a scam case from Saturday afternoon where the suspects drove up to an elderly couple out for a walk, spoke with them, placed a necklace onto the woman, and in the process stole her own two gold necklaces without her noticing. The victim was not physically injured, and the suspects are at large.
On Saturday, October 23, 2021, at about 4:42 p.m., our 24-hour dispatch center received a call from a woman who reported that her necklaces had been stolen by a woman as she had been out for a walk about 45 minutes earlier.
The investigation revealed that the victim, a woman in her seventies, had been out for a walk with her husband in the 700 block of East Meadow Drive. A vehicle drove up next to them and stopped. The vehicle was occupied by a male driver, a female front seat passenger, and a child of unknown gender under the age of ten years old in the back seat. The female suspect spoke to the victim in a language she believed may be Urdu, while the male distracted her husband by speaking with him (in heavily accented English). The suspects stayed in their vehicle the entire time.
The female suspect offered the victim a gold necklace, and placed it around the victim’s neck, apparently giving it to her. The victim could not understand what the female suspect was saying to her during the interaction. After less than two minutes, the vehicle drove off westbound on East Meadow Drive towards Middlefield Road. The victim then realized that the suspect had stolen her two gold necklaces off her neck while putting on the other one.
The victim described the suspect as a woman in her fifties with a scarf over her head and a face covering. The victim said the suspect had “darker” skin and was possibly of Middle Eastern or Romanian heritage. Neither the victim nor her husband could describe the male driver. The victim described their vehicle as an older, silver sedan.
Officers canvassed the neighborhood for any surveillance cameras on nearby homes and were able to locate one that captured the suspect vehicle on tape. A still image of the suspect vehicle is attached to this release.
There have been no similar crimes reported in Palo Alto. Detectives are looking at neighboring communities to see if the suspects in this case may be connected to similar crimes in other cities.
Police recommend that you always remain aware of your surroundings and be cautious if approached by the occupants of an unfamiliar vehicle. Police recommend maintaining a safe distance from any unfamiliar, occupied vehicle. Be aware of theft scams like this one and other criminal behavior that may occur, and promptly report suspicious behavior or crimes to the police by calling our 24-hour dispatch center at (650) 329-2413, or 9-1-1 if it is an emergency.
Anyone with information about this incident is asked to call our 24-hour dispatch center at (650) 329-2413. Anonymous tips can be e-mailed to paloalto@tipnow.org or sent via text message or voice mail to (650) 383-8984.