Police/Fire

Four suspects broke into a home on the 1400 block of Wessex Avenue in Los Altos through an unlocked door at approximately 3 a.m. July 10. That same morning, suspects stole a garage door opener from a car on the 1300 block of Chelsea Drive, gained entry through the carpark and took off with a vehicle. Somewhere in between, suspects rummaged through an estimated 12 or 13 cars in the same neighborhood, according to Los Altos Police Sgt. Steve Spillman.

Although the reports from the incidents were filed separately, the timeline and proximity of the crimes – also reported on El Sereno Avenue, Havenhurst Drive and Christina Drive – led investigators to speculate that the incidents were related.

Mountain View officers arrested a Palo Alto man Saturday as he allegedly tried to escape after committing a residential burglary, according to a press release from the police department. 

Megan V. Winslow/Town Crier
A bicyclist rides past the new emergency call box at the Stevens Creek Trail Sleeper Avenue trailhead last week. Early last month, Mountain View city officials installed the box and another at Yuba Drive while simultaneously replacing existing boxes at La Avenida Street and Central Avenue.

The installation of two new emergency call boxes along the Stevens Creek Trail should provide peace of mind for trail users concerned about crime along the corridor.

The Mountain View Police Department announced the addition of the new towers, located at the Yuba Drive and Sleeper Avenue trailheads, June 20.

The rumble of a car muffler and hum of a garage door opening awoke Los Altos resident Maria Porch and her family just after 1:30 a.m. last week. When Porch investigated, she discovered a strange man inside her Winding Way garage. Others awaited in the getaway car.

“They were trying to basically steal all our bikes,” Porch said. “They had put my daughter’s bike on my bike rack when I ran outside and started screaming. They didn’t secure the bike on the bike rack, and they ran over it with my car and just drove away.”

Megan V. Winslow/Town Crier
With crime rising in Los Altos, residents concerned with existing or potential danger in their neighborhoods can participate in the local Neighborhood Watch program, advertised above. According to the Los Altos Police Department’s website, watch groups have “block captains” to connect neighbors and the police department and to share prevention tips and information on crime trends.

As June comes to a close and the city settles into summer, police database records reveal that Los Altos’ trend of experiencing more property crimes than days in the year continues.

On day 169 of this year (Monday, the Town Crier’s press deadline), authorities disclosed 223 total property crimes. That comes out to 1.3 property crimes per day.

After months of investigation, the Mountain View Police Department last week led an effort to arrest three suspects allegedly involved in several auto burglaries in the South Bay, when they learned the men were within city limits, according to a press release.

Alongside the Los Altos Police Department, the Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety and the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office, Mountain View Police Department detectives took Marcus Anigilaje, 39, of Oakland, Troy Collins, 25, of Sacramento and Paul Edwards, 29, of Oakland into custody June 18.