Trio Sought After Ransacking Of Peninsula Home

PALO ALTO, CA — Police are asking for the public’s help in identifying a suspect — one of a trio —wanted in connection with a Sunday break-in that set off a burglar alarm at an unoccupied home in Palo Alto.

Reported by a neighbor on the same block, the burglary was logged Sept. 18 at about 2:30 a.m. at a residence on the 600 block of Lowell Avenue, the Palo Alto Police Department said.

The person called police after hearing an alarm and looking outside to see three people running to a parked car, then driving off "at a high rate of speed," the agency said.

Police suspect one of the threesome was "casing" the house Sept. 17, the day before the break-in, at about 10:48 p.m., and that person was captured on surveillance video. The house belongs to a woman in her 80s, who fowarded to police the footage from a security camera at her front door, the department said.

Palo Alto police said they "believe he was casing the house at the time, and then returned with accomplices to break in overnight."

During the Sunday burglary, the suspects kicked open a side-yard door to enter the home, then ransacked drawers before the burglar alarm sounded and "apparently scared them off," police said.

The owner's security camera showed at least three suspects running out the front door at 2:13 a.m., according to officials, who added that the victim did not find any property missing from her home.

The three suspects, possibly all males, were wearing black, hooded sweatshirts and left the scene in a dark sedan, police said.

Anyone with information can call the 24-hour dispatch center at (650) 329-2413, plus anonymous tips can be e-mailed to paloalto@tipnow.org or sent via text message or voice mail to (650) 383-8984.

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