Pair Steals Baby Formula From Pleasanton Safeway, Lead Officers on High Speed Chase

Suspect photos: Dejan Martin and Demarko Luke. Source: Pleasanton Police Department

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A man and a woman are scheduled to be arraigned today on charges that they stole baby formula from a Pleasanton grocery store and then led police on a high-speed chase.

Pleasanton police said officers who were patrolling the parking lot at the Safeway store at 6790 Bernal Ave. early Wednesday spotted a man later identified as 21-year-old Demarko Luke, of Oakland, running out of the store carrying two baskets of Enfamil baby formula.

Police said Luke then got into an orange Chevrolet Cavalier driven by a woman later identified as Dejan Martin, of San Leandro.

As Safeway employees were calling police to report the theft, Martin led officers on a pursuit on northbound Interstate Highway 680, according to police.

Martin exited onto eastbound Stoneridge Drive but lost control of the car and nearly struck a pole at Stoneridge Drive and Johnson Court, police said.

The suspects got out of the car and ran toward Val Vista Park, according to police.

Officers set up a perimeter and an officer who used a police dog eventually found both suspects hiding within the perimeter, police said.

Luke and Martin were booked into Santa Rita Jail in Dublin on multiple felony counts and are scheduled to be arraigned today at the Gale Schenone Hall of Justice in Pleasanton.

In addition to finding the formula that was allegedly stolen from the Safeway store, officers who searched the car Martin was driving recovered a trunk full of baby formula they believe was stolen from other locations, police said.

The incident on Wednesday appears to be related to a previous theft of baby formula at the same Safeway on March 1 that involved similar suspect and vehicle descriptions, according to police.

--Bay City News; Image Patch Archive

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