A woman was robbed while carrying her toddler through a downtown Palo Alto parking lot, police said.
The woman, who is in her 40s, was walking through the parking lot on the 300 block of Hamilton Avenue, behind Chase Bank, on Thursday around 2:30 p.m. when a man approached her from behind, grabbed her neck and demanded her purse, police said. The man then forcibly took her purse and necklace before pushing the woman — who was carrying her child — to the ground, police said.
The man ran away, and despite police responding from the police station a block away, the man was nowhere to be found, police said.
The woman suffered from pain to her knee and neck and her toddler was not injured, police said.
Police ask anyone with information about this crime to call (650) 329-2413. Anonymous tips can be texted to (650) 383-8984.
Downtown Palo Alto isn’t safe. I think of that girl who was assaulted on University Ave by a homeless woman who was let out of a Psych Ward in Baltimore after committing a murder there. Downtown has become like SF’s Tenderloin and City Council doesn’t seem to think crime affects the amount of street traffic?
Don’t go downtown until they do something about all the homeless. It’s out of control.
One block from police headquarters.
That perfectly sums up the embarrassment and shame of the lack of public safety in the heart of our town caused by an apathetic and ineffectual city council focused on all manner of virtue signaling pet priorities and not police and fire.
It’s shameful and out of control, and won’t change until there’s a public outcry, which sadly there doesn’t seem to be.