A Palo Alto resident thwarted an attempted burglary of her home, according to Palo Alto police.
On Wednesday, March 18, around 6 a.m., police officers responded to a call from a woman reporting that three men had attempted to break into her home on the 1500 block of Channing Avenue. Officers and a police K-9 responded to the area but did not locate the suspects.
Investigators said the victim, a woman in her 60s, was sleeping when she heard noises in the yard of her home, and when she went to investigate, she saw a man standing outside of an open kitchen window at the front of her home. When the man saw her, he ran away. Two other men ran out of her side yard, police said. The men had removed the screen from an unlocked kitchen window and opened it, but did not enter the home, police said.
The men are described as Hispanic males in their late teens or early 20s. The man at the victim’s window has a stocky build and was wearing a dark hooded sweatshirt while the other two were wearing light-colored clothing.
Police do not anticipate that a sketch will be forthcoming, and recommend that residents lock and secure all doors and windows overnight.
Anyone with information pertaining to this incident is asked to call the police department’s 24-hour dispatch center at 650-329-2413. Anonymous tips can be emailed to paloalto@tipnow.org or sent via text message or voice mail to 650-383-8984.
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I don’t understand why people leave windows open and doors unlocked at night. Always close window and lock your doors at night even if you live in the nicest place in the world. Criminals are looking for oportunities to commit crimes and an open window is an invitation.
DId she leave her window open, or just unlocked? The article says, “The men had removed the screen from an unlocked kitchen window and opened it.” Which sounds like it was closed. I’m wondering if they were so intent on burglarizing this house that they were taking the screen off to check if it was unlocked, or if they were cruising the neighborhood opportunistically, and saw the window was open or ajar..
Three burglars arrested today in Menlo Park – wonder if they are the same guys.
http://www.almanacnews.com/news/2015/03/20/menlo-park-three-arrested-for-alleged-burglary-after-pursuit
@ XDM: Just FYI, but many people in Palo Alto don’t waste electricity by running the air conditioner at night. Some people simply open a window. Unfortunately, vile thugs take advantage of it.
Too bad we have to start to live like being stuffed into an air tight box due to paranoia of other opportunist trying to take our property.
When your window is open, especially in the summer, you get to listen to your neighbor’s air conditioner cycling on and off all night, often in near-resonance with another neighbor’s air conditioner, giving that extra fun throbbing sound. All the newer construction seems to have big central air conditioning units situated in a side yard two feet from property line. Living large in Palo Alto. As a kid all I heard through the wee hours were crickets and frogs. And I don’t recall anyone worried about their house or car getting broken into, though there was the occasional bike theft out of open garages.
And yeah, we walked to school in the snow, uphill both ways.