Police Investigating Residential Burglary Where Suspect Stole Car
Published on September 28, 2021
Palo Alto, CA – Police are investigating a residential burglary that occurred on Saturday morning where the suspect entered an unlocked garage and stole a vehicle. Police are asking for the community’s help in identifying the suspect, who was captured on home surveillance cameras.
On Saturday, September 25, 2021, at about 9:19 a.m., our 24-hour dispatch center received a call from a homeowner in the 300 block of Whitclem Drive reporting that their vehicle had been stolen out of their driveway by an unknown suspect within the past twenty minutes. The homeowner victims, a couple in their seventies, then reviewed home surveillance camera footage and realized it had captured images of the suspect.
The investigation revealed that shortly before 9:00 a.m., the suspect arrived at the victim’s driveway while riding a bicycle. He entered the garage via an open and unlocked side yard door and stole the keys to the victim’s vehicle that had been on a countertop. The suspect also stole a surveillance camera from inside the garage. He then used the key to unlock the victim’s vehicle, while it was parked in the driveway. The suspect left the bicycle behind and drove off with the car northbound on Wilkie Way towards West Charleston Road. Both victims were home at the time of the crime.
Surveillance images show that the suspect is a Black male, possibly in his twenties or thirties, who was wearing a black shirt, black pants, and a gray baseball cap with an orange bill. The suspect was wearing a white face mask and a dark backpack. Two surveillance images of the suspect are attached.
The stolen vehicle is a gray 2011 Mercedes ML-350 sport utility vehicle. As of the date and time of this release, the vehicle has not been located. The bicycle the suspect left behind was a black and white Trek Marlin. It had not been registered or reported stolen.
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.