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Palo Alto police have arrested four people suspected of organized retail theft and a hit-and-run collision on Friday, the department said in a press release.
The police dispatch center received a call shortly after 2 p.m. on April 22 from the Lululemon Athletica store at 432 University Ave. near Waverley Street. The caller reported a clothing theft and said that the four people fled in a BMW X5 sport utility vehicle. As officers were heading to the scene, another call came in reporting a hit-and-run collision on Homer Avenue and Cowper Street less than half a mile away, where the description of the car was similar to that of the robbery. No one was hurt in the collision.
The Lululemon investigation revealed that two women and one man entered the store, grabbed several items of merchandise and fled in a vehicle without making a payment. Lululemon staff jotted down the car's license plate and provided it to the police.
As the vehicle made its way south on Cowper Street, it ran the stop sign at the intersection with Homer Avenue and struck a westbound Toyota pickup truck driven by a man in his 20s. The BMW did not stop and fled the scene. Both vehicles sustained minor damage.
Officers located the SUV traveling east on state Route 92 in Foster City on the San Mateo-Hayward Bridge. The vehicle was stopped in the 27000 block of Industrial Boulevard in Hayward and five people in the car were taken into custody without incident at about 2:45 p.m.
Officers retrieved the allegedly stolen property of 54 Lululemon items valued at $5,800 which they said were inside the vehicle.
Four people were booked into Santa Clara County Main Jail in San Jose on suspicion of felony retail theft: a 20-year-old man from Stockton and three Modesto women, ages 24, 25 and 26. The man was also booked on suspicion of hit-and-run and for two outstanding felony warrants. The 25-year-old man was found with an outstanding felony warrant. The fifth person in the car was released following the police investigation.
Anyone with information about this incident is asked to call the department's 24-hour dispatch center at 650-329-2413. Anonymous tips can be emailed to paloalto@tipnow.org or sent by text message or voicemail to 650-383-8984. Tips can also be submitted anonymously through the police's free mobile app, downloadable at bit.ly/PAPD-AppStore or bit.ly/PAPD-GooglePlay.
Editor's note: The Pulse's policy is to withhold the names of those arrested for most crimes until the district attorney has determined there is sufficient evidence to file charges in the case. Read our guidelines.
