Sep 5, 2008

Robber accosts woman

By Will Oremus / Daily News Staff Writer

Palo Alto police are hunting for a man who apparently pulled a brazen, mid-day armed robbery of a pedestrian in the Stanford Research Park on Thursday.

At 12:27 p.m., police took a call from a woman who said she was robbed at the intersection of Porter Drive and Hanover Street, near the Lockheed Martin campus on Page Mill Road. About 10 minutes before that, she said, a man had walked up to her and opened his jacket to flash a handgun.

The man told the woman menacingly that he "didn't want to use it," Agent Dan Ryan said. She handed over her cell phone and purse.

Shortly thereafter, police spotted a car with a passenger who matched the suspect's description, but he turned out not to be a participant in the crime. The suspect was presumed on the loose at press time.

The man is described as a white or Hispanic male in his 20s with very close-cropped dark hair and a goatee. He was wearing white shorts and shoes, with white crew socks pulled up, and a zipped-up black jacket with a San Jose Sharks logo.

Anyone with information about the robbery is asked to call the police department's anonymous tip line at 650-329-2190.


E-mail Will Oremus at woremus@dailynewsgroup.com.