Palo Alto police have arrested one of two individuals who allegedly took part in robbing a woman of her cell phone as she was walking in Old Palo Alto in March 2022.
Police said the suspect, who was 17 at the time of the strong-arm robbery, was one of two teenagers who followed a woman as she was walking on the 2000 block of Webster Street and talking on her cell phone, according to a police news release.
The woman, who is in her 40s, reported that she heard the two males following her for about two minutes. They then reportedly began to run and one of them grabbed the cell phone out of her hand.
Police said the teenagers then ran across the street with the stolen phone to a white four-door sedan, which took off heading west on Santa Rita Avenue.
Through an investigation, police identified one of the two individuals as a Redwood City resident. On June 23, they obtained an arrest warrant charging him with one count of robbery. And on Wednesday afternoon, June 28, police arrested him without incident on the 500 block of Alden Street in Redwood City, according to the news release.
Because he was under 18 at the time of the robbery, he was taken to the Santa Clara Juvenile Hall, police said.
Detectives had previously considered whether the March 14, 2022, robbery on Webster was related to another robbery that occurred hours later on University Avenue. In that case, two individuals approached a man who was walking on the 300 block of University at 1 a.m. on March 15. Police said one of the two men flashed a gun and they considered taking the victim’s laptop and cell phone before they walked away with two of his credit cards.
Police said on Friday that they no longer believe the two robberies were connected. They are keeping the March 14 case investigation open in case they can identify and arrest the second suspect, according to the news release.
Anyone with information about this incident is asked to call the department’s 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.
