Palo Alto police said today they have arrested the suspect who carjacked a motor home in the Ventura neighborhood last week and returned the stolen vehicle to the victim, who had been sleeping in the vehicle when it was stolen.
Arrested was Omar Alexis Romero Perez, 27, of East Palo Alto.
The victim, a man in his 60s, was asleep in the motor home that was parked in the 400 block of of Matadero Avenue early Friday morning when he was awakened by the sound of the engine starting.
He went out to find an unknown man in the driver’s seat. They struggled and the victim fell from the motor home as the thief drove away.
On Wednesday, shortly before 11 a.m., officers from the East Palo Alto Police Department saw the stolen motor home driving in their city near the Ravenswood Shopping Center.
They stopped the motor home on Wilks Street at Gates Street in East Palo Alto, detained the male driver and a female passenger without incident, and called detectives from the Palo Alto Police Department who had been working on the caper.
Police determined that the driver Wednesday was indeed the suspect who had carjacked the motor home from the victim.
The female passenger was not connected or involved in the carjacking and was later released by the East Palo Alto Police Department. Palo Alto detectives took the suspect and returned the stolen motorhome to the victim.
Perez was booked into the Santa Clara County Main Jail for carjacking and elder abuse (as the victim was more than 65 years old), both felonies.