String of Berkeley Armed Robberies Target Laptop Owners

BERKELEY, CA — Berkeley police are trying to determine if a series of four robberies and one theft involving patrons at cafes that took place over the course of four days are somehow related.

The first robbery occurred Friday at 10:35 a.m. when three men allegedly stole the laptops from two patrons at a café in the 1700 block of Solano Avenue.

The second robbery was on Saturday at a café in the 2600 block of College Avenue, when two suspects, one of them armed with a handgun, allegedly stole a laptop and a cellphone from two different customers at 8:13
p.m. and then fled in a car.

In the third robbery, three suspects, one with a handgun, reportedly robbed several people of laptops at 8:45 p.m. at a café in the 2900 block of College Avenue and were last seen running west on Ashby Avenue.

The fourth robbery involved two suspects, one armed, who took one person's laptop from a café in the 2700 block of College Avenue on Sunday at 8:50 p.m. The men fled in a waiting car.

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The fifth crime, classified as a theft because no force or fear of force was used, happened on Monday at about 2:45 p.m. when two suspects reportedly stole one person's laptop and fled on foot.

The suspects in all the crimes are described as black men between the ages of 16 and 25, from 5 feet 8 inches tall to 6 feet tall with medium, athletic or thin builds.

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Officers say they are reviewing security camera footage and are asking anyone with information to call Berkeley police at (510) 981-5742.

Police are also reminding people to keep their personal property close at hand when in public places, to not struggle with criminals over a theft, and to remember to back up computers to cloud-based storage or
external data storage devices.

— Bay City News; Image via Shutterstock