Palo Alto Police Search For Armed Suspects After Brazen Driveway Robbery
PALO ALTO (CBS SF) -- Two armed suspects robbed a Palo Alto man Friday night as he was unloading a child from his vehicle in the driveway of his home.
Palo Alto police said their 24-hour dispatch center received a call around 6:31 p.m. of an armed robbery that had occurred about 15 minutes earlier. The caller reported that the suspects had fled in a black two-door vehicle.
Arriving officers learned that the victim, a man in his thirties, had just parked in the driveway of his home and had opened the rear door of his vehicle to get a young child out of the backseat.
The suspects pulled up nearby, and a passenger got out and approached him. The suspect pointed a pistol at the victim and demanded his property.
The man complied and handed over his wristwatch. He told officers that the driver of the suspects vehicle remained in the car, but was also pointed a handgun at him before the suspects fled.
The victim described the suspects as unknown age males wearing ski masks. Their two-door coupe had tinted windows.
Police were also investigating a suspicious circumstances case earlier in the evening that likely involved the same suspects.
At about 6:20 p.m., the dispatch center received a report from staff at Patagonia at 525 Alma Street that just before 6:00 p.m. of two men had been sitting in their car in front of the store for an extended length of time.
The vehicle was reported as a black two-door Honda Accord with tinted windows.
As one of men eventually opened the car door, he happened to make an eye contact with a uniformed security guard standing nearby. The man chose to remain in the vehicle, which then immediately drove off and headed eastbound on University Avenue.
The security guard recorded the license plate on the car. Police learned that license plate had been reported stolen out of Oakland and did not belong on a Honda.