BY BRADEN CARTWRIGHT
Daily Post Staff Writer
A woman with a long history of allegedly trying to open car doors outside Google co-founder Larry Page’s Palo Alto home has been arrested for attacking a man with an umbrella, police said Friday.
Yun “April” Li, 50, of Palo Alto, was booked on Monday evening for assault with a deadly weapon on Waverley Oaks, a court in the Old Palo Alto neighborhood where Page lives with his family.
Following an argument, Li hit a man in his 40s from Petaluma and left him with minor visible injuries to his face, police said. Lt. Dave Lee wouldn’t provide information yesterday about how Li knew the victim or his occupation.
Li is also facing charges for violating a restraining order.
A private security guard emailed police with a list of incidents involving Li that started around July 2023, when Li asked to represent the security guard’s clients in a home purchase.
“She was persistent in this venture as she began trying to bribe our security officers for access,” the security guard said in an email to police that was included in a police report. Li was unsuccessful with her bribes, the security guard said.
“Unfortunately, things started to escalate from there. Her behavior became more troublesome,” the security guard said.
Li, who lived nearby, kept trying to get into occupied security vehicles parked on the street. She would walk up and try the passenger side door and sit down if the door was unlocked, the security guard said.
Security guards in the cars would tell Li to get out, and she would almost always say “I’m sorry” then walk away, the security guard said.
Security recorded about 25 of these encounters, but it probably happened 30 to 40 times, the security guard said in his email to police.
“It has become almost a daily occurrence,” the security guard said.
Around the same time, Li allegedly tried to enter a neighbor’s house at night from the back door.
Li told police that it was an accident, and her husband blamed menopause, the security guard said.
Li also opened car doors of contractors, delivery drivers and other neighbors, the security guard said.
The security guard said he was worried Li would get dragged or run over, or that someone would react violently to a stranger getting in their car.
A man obtained a restraining order against Li in September after she opened his front door and had an Uber drop her off in his driveway, police said.
Li was arrested in October for going within 50 feet of the man’s house, police said. The man’s name was redacted from the police report.
Another resident, whose name was also redacted, told Page’s property manager that Li followed her nanny and kids home from the Junior Museum and Zoo, according to the police report.
“I am pretty spooked … Hopefully this all nothing and she is a harmless, quirky neighbor but either way felt it might be good to let you know,” the resident said in an email to Page’s property manager.
Palo Alto’s psychiatric emergency response team, led by Officer Danny Cuevas, was working to resolve the situation, police said.
Li is a state-licensed realtor. She declined to give her side of story over the phone.
Most likely she has some form of dementia, and less likely mental illness. I think the neighborhood would take better care of her if we knew exactly what the problem is and how we can keep her safe. Unfortunately we are not given any information so people image the worse. She needs a psychiatric evauation and determine her best housing situation. She. does not seem to be getting good care at home now.
As a neighbor, I’m glad that you reported this story. We’ve been kept in the dark. We’ve seen the police over here a couple of times, and the security is always here. But nobody bothered to tell us anything. Thank God we have a local newspaper!
Let me guess, she’s out on bail
We’re willing to put up with some of the problems you get when there’s a famous person in the neighborhood (the late Steve Jobs). But this woman is really pushing the limit. Police need to put her in the hospital on a psychiatric hold since she is a danger to others (the umbrella attack). It wouldn’t be a bad idea if Larry Page stayed in one of his other homes while she is still on the loose.