Palo Alto police arrested two Sunnyvale residents who allegedly used a credit card that was stolen during a December robbery on El Cajon Way to buy a Sony PlayStation game console.
The arrest of Shamika Westmoreland, 28, and her father, Rickey Westmoreland, 58, was the latest in a recent string of arrests made by Palo Alto police since a wave of street robberies shook up the city last fall. At least 10 people have been arrested so far, some of whom were involved in more than one robbery, police said.
There were about 21 robberies committed in Palo Alto during the spree, which began in late September, according to police Lt. Sandra Brown.
The latest break came after police learned that Rickey Westmoreland used his e-mail address to register a PlayStation that was bought with a stolen credit card. On Dec. 11, a man approached a woman as she was getting out of her car in the driveway of her home on El Cajon Way and ran off with her purse. Police later arrested Dean Allen Holmes, 23, of San Jose, in connection with the robbery.
Police learned that the credit card used to buy the PlayStation was the one taken during the El Cajon Way robbery. Brown said Holmes and the Westmorelands were acquaintances and that the father and daughter knew that the console was purchased with a stolen credit card. Rickey and Shamika Westmoreland were arrested on Feb. 18 and charged with felony possession of stolen property.
Police had also charged Holmes with robbing a pizza deliveryman at gunpoint in the 4000 block of Ben Lomond Drive on Jan. 10. Holmes was arrested last month after police found an iPod that was bought with a stolen credit card at his house.
