Palo Alto Police arrested four Chilean nationals on suspicion of breaking into a home, police said today (June 17).
The owner of a home on the 2300 block of Byron Street called police at 9:29 p.m. Saturday to report that she got a notification from her home security system that someone was in her home, according to a statement from police.
The woman, who is currently overseas, could see strangers breaking into her home via her security cameras, police said.
Police went to the woman’s home and saw three people running out of the building and hopping fences. Police caught up to all three, according to the statement.
One of the men said his foot hurt due to jumping from the second-floor balcony. Paramedics checked him out at the scene, police said.
A fourth person, a 17-year-old, was found hiding in a black 2018 Chevrolet Tahoe with plates for a Ford, police said.
The burglars had broken a glass door on the second-floor balcony and ransacked two bedrooms and loaded items from the home into two bags, police said.
Police found a window punch and a flashlight that was discarded as the burglars ran away.
One of the men had two expensive watches, one man’s and one woman’s when he was arrested, Another had a diamond ring in his sock, police said.
The men told police that they were visiting from Chile. Police arrested two 17-year-olds whose names weren’t released and Christian Cervera Colan, 23, and Jorge Pacheco, 18.
Over the past few years, police departments have warned about Chilean gangs partaking in “criminal tourism” in California.
Atherton Chief Steven McCulley said in February 2022 that Chilean gang members from Los Angeles burglarized six homes in the town in one month, and the Hillsborough Police Department have put out similar warnings.
Keep voting Democratic!
At least atherton has put in place a decoy program to track valuable stolen merchandise.
Will Palo Alto be doing the same?
And what’s the penalty for burglary tourism? i ask because I’m curious about what deterrents there are.
Glad these guys were caught but I’m curious about what deterrents there are to burglary tourism.
We’ve read that Atherton has put in place a decoy program to track stolen merchandise so I’m curious about whether Palo Alto plans to do the same.
I think I saw one of them biking around on the 2300 block of Webster that day! He kept circling and stopping to look and it looked like he was canvassing the area.
Will PA residents ever grow a pair and BUY FIREARMS? Or does political ideology trump physical safety? Why do you guys just let this persist?
I graduated high school in 2016. I know someone from my high school class who was from EPA who used to commit burglaries in PA because he told me no one here is armed and the police doesn’t care…. This was 8 years ago. BUY A GUN you pansies.
Let’s see here, our southern border is wide open with thousands of people flooding in each month completely unvetted….hmmm, what could possibly go wrong?