Police/Fire

A distracted driving campaign conducted across Santa Clara County over five days last month resulted in more than 900 traffic stops, the organizing agency reported.

The Kirk Griess Memorial Enforcement Campaign took place Aug. 5-9, with the Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety organizing the local effort and agencies including the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office, the Los Altos Police Department and the Mountain View Police Department participating. Patrol officers primarily focused on drivers distracted from traffic by their cellphones. They issued 825 citations for such violations, said Capt. Ava Fanucchi of the Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety.

Mountain View Police detectives seek information from anyone who may have been victimized by a transient man arrested early Wednesday (Aug. 28) morning for allegedly trying to assault a woman in the shower at a local gym.

Photos by Melissa Hartman/Town Crier
An unknown suspect or suspects attempted unsuccessfully to force entry into Marcel Jewelry Design on Main Street Aug. 19 by breaking the glass in the shop’s storefront.

Law enforcement received word of an attempted commercial burglary on the 100 block of First Street in Los Altos Aug. 18. The following day, two more attempted commercial burglaries were reported on the 200 block of Main Street, according to CrimeReports.com.

Los Altos Police Department Capt. Katie Krauss confirmed the incidents in an email to the Town Crier Aug. 20. Due to an uptick in commercial burglaries, Krauss added that “additional resources” have been allocated to the area for the sake of protecting local businesses.

Mountain View Police Department officers last week arrested four Central Valley residents on a slew of charges related to drugs, counterfeit currency and a stolen handgun.

Na Xiong’s alleged theft of a catalytic converter proved the beginning of the quartet’s undoing. The 21-year-old Merced resident stole it from a car parked on the 800 block of Wake Forest Drive in Mountain View at approximately 4 a.m. Aug. 18, and a resident of the street chased him away, the release said. Officers en route to the crime scene spotted Xiong’s Toyota Camry nearby on Emily Drive and detained him. Inside the car they found the stolen emission control device, burglary tools and a handgun reported stolen from the Central Valley.

The convicted killer of two women, including a 1996 Los Altos High School graduate, awaits sentencing after being found guilty Aug. 15 in the stabbing deaths and the attempted murder of a third woman.

Jurors also ruled Thursday that serial killer Michael Gargiulo was sane when he committed the brutal home-invasion crimes.

Courtesy of the Santa Clara County Fire Department

The shaded area above represents the approximate boundaries of where Friday's test message will be heard.

In preparation for the upcoming Labor Day weekend, the Santa Clara County Fire Department plans to conduct a test of the county’s emergency alert system this week.

Anyone within or near the AlertSCC “test polygon” at 10 a.m. Friday (Aug. 30) may receive the following text message: “This is a TEST. Have a fire safe weekend. Find wildfire prep info at sccfd.org/rsg,” according to a fire department press release. Three of the polygon’s “sides” roughly correspond to Page Mill Road in the north, Interstate 280 and Highway 85 in the east and Skyline Boulevard in the west. The fourth side is located south of Highway 17 across the Sierra Azul Preserve.

“Nearly every community served by Santa Clara County Fire Department is at risk for wildfire and needs to be prepared,” said Tony Bowden, SCCFD Fire Chief, according to the press release.

To register for AlertSCC, visit www.alertscc.com. For wildfire preparedness tips, visit the fire department’s website at www.sccfd.org/rsg.

{jathumbnail off}