BY DANIEL SCHRAGER
Daily Post Staff Writer
Three Palo Alto home burglaries were reported in the span of an hour last night (Nov. 11), resulting in a police helicopter circling part of town, police said.
The first occurred around 9:25 p.m. on the 3900 block of Nelson Drive, police said in a statement. The house’s resident, a woman in her 30s, saw two people in masks break through a back sliding door. She called the police, and the intruders fled in a dark-colored car when officers arrived, the statement said.
Minutes later, police received a call from a man one street over, on the 400 block of El Capitan Place, saying he’d returned home and his house looked like it had been ransacked. The man, who’s in his 40s, reported hearing a loud noise and his child saw someone crawling on the floor before they left the house and called police, according to the statement. Police said the burglar entered the house by breaking a glass sliding door. Officers couldn’t find the suspects despite help from a San Jose Police Department helicopter and a San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office K9 unit.
Police say they haven’t determined if anything was stolen from either house.
A third burglary was reported at 10:15 p.m. on the 1000 block of Cardinal Way – over two miles from the other two incidents. Police say the burglar broke in by smashing a sliding window in the back of the house and that several pieces of jewelry were missing. The house’s resident wasn’t home when the burglary took place.
Police haven’t identified a suspect in any of the cases. Lt. Nicholas Martinez told the Daily Post in an email that police are investigating whether the incidents are related but haven’t made a determination yet.
Palo Alto residents should make sure to lock the side gates of their homes to prevent burglars from getting to the backyard, police said. Police also recommend locking all windows and doors overnight.
Monday’s break-ins come just weeks after Atherton saw a string of home burglaries in late October. The Atherton incidents followed a similar pattern, with suspects breaking in by smashing a glass door or window, according to the town’s police department.