Palo Alto police are looking for two people who attempted to burglarize a home on the 3800 block of Corina Way on Monday at about 10:50 a.m. but were scared off when an alarm activated, police said.
A woman in her 40s who lives in the home was in her kitchen when she heard a noise in the backyard and someone jiggling the door handles on one of the back doors. She also saw two silhouettes through the drapes, police said.
The woman immediately armed the alarm system on her home, called 911 and moved to the front of the house while police responded. While she was on the phone with dispatchers, the suspects used a stone garden statue to break a glass door at the back of the home to get inside, police said.
The woman fled out the front of the residence, which triggered the alarm to sound and apparently startled the burglars, who fled in an unknown direction, police said.
Officers conducted an extensive search of the area but were unable to locate the suspects.
Investigators said the two burglars entered an unlocked side-yard gate to get into the backyard. It is unclear whether they knew someone was home or not, police said.
The suspects did not enter the residence and did not steal any property, police said.
The burglars are described as 5 feet 10 inches tall with slim builds, and one was wearing a baseball cap. The victim could not determine the race or gender of the suspects.
Police recommend that residents lock side-yard gates and call Palo Alto Utilities Customer Service at 650-329-2161 to discuss options if meter readers need to access the utility meter behind a locked gate. For a list of crime prevention tips, visit cityofpaloalto.org.
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.
Pretty brazen attempted break in. Makes you feel uncomfortable being in your own home. I can’t believe that the criminals couldn’t figure out that someone was probably home. We had a rash of burglaries in our neighborhood a year or two back and now have 3 locks on our entrances to the backyard. Kind of a pain for the meter reader…he has to come when we are home and knock on the door. Our gardener has his own keys to the locks. The break ins have been very much lessened by some of the precautions we have installed and we try to keep a watch on our neighbor’s properties.
Disturbing coming on the heels of the home invasion robbery.
I read the “home invasion” on Suzanne was for people who had recently moved in. Were the invaders looking for the previous occupants and that’s why they ran when they saw the man of the house? Where are those occupants now? In hiding? It would be interesting to hear from them.
Makes you wonder if these perps are the same blond white men of the recent home invasion attack.
@ resident: I was wondering the same thing. The thugs in the other invasion had good descriptions. So far, all we have to go by was their height (5’10”), slender build and the presence of a baseball cap. That doesn’t narrow it down very much. Is it possible that the witness couldn’t tell what their skin color looked like?