Features

Bank robber sought 

Police in three cities are seeking a heavy-set robber who walks into banks wearing a bright orange construction worker’s vest and a billed cap and proceeds to rob them. 

Albany Police want him for a heist on April 27, 2004, and Richmond police want him for a Dec. 23, 2004, robbery in their city. Berkeley officers want to slap the cuffs on him for a similar caper at the 1095 University Ave. Wells Fargo branch on Oct. 20. 

He is described as a chunky African American male in his late 20s to early 30s, who stands about 5’10” and sports shoulder length dreadlocks and a goatee. 

Anyone with information on the vested bank robber is requested to call the BPD Robbery Detail at 981-5742 or e-mail the department at police@ci.berkeley.ca.us. Anonymity is allowed. 

Carjack 

Responding to several calls of “loud reports” (cop-speak for suspected gunshots) in the 1600 block of Russell Street shortly after midnight Nov. 6, police arrived to find the 24-year-old victim of a carjacking, said Berkeley Police spokesperson Officer Joe Okies. 

The young man said his car had been stolen at gunpoint by a group of several other young men, and he’d last seen his wheels rolling westbound on Russell. 

Belted 

Officers arrested a 38-year-old woman on charges of assault with a deadly weapon and being drunk in public after she reportedly took a belt to a 20-year-old woman in the 3300 block of King Street about 1:15 a.m. on the 6th. 

Robbery duo 

Two robbers, one armed with a pellet or BB gun, shot an 18-year-old man and robbed him and two others of a cell phone, cash and a wallet around 12:50 a.m. Nov. 7 in the 1100 block of Gilman Street. 

Foiled heist 

A man approached a woman who was in her parked car in the 2600 block of College Avenue at 4 p.m. on Nov. 7 and tried to take her wallet. The woman escaped by the simple expedient of stepping on the gas and departing. 

Teens on teen 

Thirty minutes later, two teenagers robbed a third at in the 800 block of Dwight Way. After landing a punch, they absconded with his portable video gaming device, said Officer Okies. 

Laptop bust 

Five minutes later, a quick response by officers to the report of the strongarm robbery of a 23-year-old woman’s laptop computer in the 2300 block of Ellsworth Street landed the 29-year-old suspect in jail and the laptop back into the hands of its owner. 

Hit and run 

Police are seeking a woman in her 40s who struck a 16-year-old girl near the intersection of Martin Luther King Jr. Way and Haste Street about 1:15 p.m. last Tuesday. 

The woman was reportedly driving a burgundy colored older American car, said Officer Okies. He was unable to provide further details on the victim. 

iJacker busted 

Responding to a caller who reported two males engaged in fisticuffs in the 1800 block of Fourth Street, officers arrived to discover that the caller had just witnessed a strongarm robbery, in which 16-year-old had been deprived of his iPod by a 17-year-old, who was then busted for the crime. 

More iJackers busted 

Police arrested two juveniles for robbing a young man of his iPod and backpack in the 2500 block of Dwight Way shortly before 8 p.m. last Tuesday. 

Oops 

Police arrested a 35-year-old man on charges of possession of burglary tools and drug paraphernalia after a routine pedestrian stop in the 1400 block of University Avenue just before midnight Tuesday. He was also held on a variety of outstanding warrants from earlier offenses. 

Hear heist 

A knife-wielding bandit robbed the till of Hear Music at 1809 Fourth St. just before 6 p.m. Tuesday. He was gone by the time officers arrived. 

Johns busted 

Acting on complaints of San Pablo Avenue residents and merchants, Berkeley Police staged a John sting Wednesday evening, resulting in the arrests of eight fellows willing to pay for fleeting companionship. 

In one instance, the arresting officer detecting the strong aroma of Cannabis wafting from the suspect’s car, and a subsequent search turned up more than two ounces of marijuana and hashish, 24 very young pot plants and $10,000 in cash. 

Beaten, robbed 

Police are seeking two men who robbed a 52-year-old man of his cash after punching him as he walked along the 2900 block of Ellis Street shortly before 3 a.m. Thursday. 

Oops again 

Officers doing an area search after a burglary was reported in the area of the 2400 block of Derby Street at 8:06 a.m. Thursday nabbed two trespassers, who on closer examination were found to be in possession of loot from the burglary as well as tools police believe they used to commit the caper. 

Knife caper 

A knife-wielding bandit clad all in white and wearing a white do-rag robbed a pedestrian of his cell phone in the 2500 block of Channing Way about 12:55 p.m. Thursday 

Campus caper 

A young robber clad in blue jeans and a black hoodie punched a pedestrian in the face and robbed him as he was walking on a pathway near the Valley Life Science Building about 10:15 p.m., reported UC Berkeley Campus Police. 

Assaults cop 

Officers responded to a home in the 900 block of Euclid Avenue at 6:49 a.m. Friday after a resident called police to report that a man had been standing on the porch, and after a request to leave, he had started vandalizing the back yard. 

When officers arrived, the 45-year-old suspect attacked one officer with a deadly weapon and punched the other, earning two other charges on top of the original trespassing complaint—plus a quick trip to the pokey. 

Trojan assault 

Police are seeking the two fellows clad in USC garb who assaulted a 20-year-old with a bottle near the corner of Haste Street and College Avenue at 10 p.m. Saturday. 

Campus burglary 

Campus Police report that four juveniles burglarized a university-owned building at 2240 Piedmont Ave. at 11:12 p.m. Saturday and made off with computer hardware in the process of ransacking several offices. 

Another beating robbery 

Police were called to a local hospital minutes before midnight Sunday, after a nurse called to report that a patient had been beaten and robbed. 

The 67-year-old victim told police he was attacked and robbed of his wallet about 90 minutes earlier in the 600 block of Gilman Street in the area of the railroad tracks. He was unable to describe his attacker.›