Full Notification

The following is a summary of criminal activity in El Cerrito. It does not include all crimes. It also does not include non-criminal events such as missing persons, traffic collisions, non-criminal deaths, non-criminal disputes, nor many other police activities that do not result in arrest.
 
January 17^th

Shoplifting – 115655 San Pablo Ave (Walgreen’s)
At 9:13AM, an officer accepted the citizen’s arrest of a 31 year old Richmond man for shoplifting $60 worth of ice cream and other food items.  The man was still sitting out front eating the stolen food when officers arrived.  Citation issued.

Vehicle Burglary – 1100 block of Shevlin Dr
At 2:58PM, an officer reports an unidentified suspect entered the victim’s Ford Transit work van via unknown means and stole tools, laptop and keys worth an unknown amount.  The theft occurred between 1/14/2022 – 7:00 pm and 1/16/2022 at 5:00 am. 

Shoplifting – 2000 El Cerrito Plaza (Ross)
At 5:17 pm, an officer reports an unidentified suspect stole women’s underwear, accessories handbags valued at $200.  The suspect was described as a black female, 55 years, 5’9”in height, average build, wearing a purple jacket, grey pants and black boots.  She was last seen toward the rear of the building on foot.

January 18^th

Vehicle Burglary – 512 El Cerrito Plaza
An officer reports on 1/18/2022, at 6:30 am, an unidentified suspect shattered the right front window of the victim’s silver Honda CR-V, removed a $20 pair of sunglasses and the remote to the parking garage.  The apartment complex video captured the suspect vehicle driving around in the parking garage, then parking next to the victim vehicle before the suspect broke the window.  The video was not of sufficient quality to provide a suspect description, but the suspect vehicle was seen as a gold 2000 Ford Taurus (CA 4ESP644) registered out of San Jose.

Robbery (Shoplift) – 1000 El Cerrito Plaza (Lucky)
At 11:50 am an officer reports the arrest of a 49 year old Richmond man after he was stopped by Lucky employees while stealing a bag full of candy.  The suspect punched one of the female clerks in the nose, giving her a bloody nose and knocking her to the floor.  The man then attempted to flee the store with other candy he picked up, and was tackled by several store employees.  The thief eventually fled to the platform at the Plaza BART station, chased by eight Lucky employees, where he was arrested.  The man was transported to the Martinez Detention Facility.

Brandishing – 11450 San Pablo Ave (Safeway)
At 1:56PM an officer reports a 45 year old Fremont man pointed and clicked what appeared to be a handgun at the passenger of a vehicle in the Safeway parking lot after the vehicle narrowly missed him as it entered a parking stall.  The occupants called police, even after the man told them it was a lighter.  The man was detained by BART PD at the Del Norte BART station and was positively identified by a witness.  The victim declined prosecution.  No firearm was located; however the man did have a lighter on his person.

Robbery (Shoplift) – 255 El Cerrito Plaza (Trader Joe’s)
At 2:22 pm, an officer reports an unidentified suspect entered the store, selected twelve bottles of alcoholic beverages worth approximately $350 in a basket and went to the cash register.  The man attempted to purchase the alcohol, but the sale was refused because he did not have his ID.  After the sale was refused, the man then attempted to leave the store with the basket of alcoholic beverages.  When the assistant manager attempted to stop him, the suspect produced a pepper spray canister from his pants pocket and sprayed it towards the store employees.  Most of the spray missed the employees.  The suspect then entered the front passenger seat of a waiting vehicle and fled westbound toward San Pablo Avenue with the alcohol.  When a store employee attempted to photograph the suspect, he again sprayed the pepper toward the employee, again mostly missing.

The suspect was described as a black male, 35-40 years, 5’9”, fit build, wearing dark clothing and a multi-colored face mask.  The suspect vehicle, driven by an unidentified female, was described as a bright metallic royal blue Honda Civic (CA 8URX728) registered out of San Francisco.

Grand Theft – 3020 El Cerrito Plaza (T-Mobile)
At 2:28 pm, an officer reports an unidentified suspect entered the T-Mobile store, walked straight to the Apple Watch display and used scissors to cut the security cables on two Apple Watches worth over $1000.  The suspect then fled the store on foot with the Apple Watches in an unknown direction.  The suspect was described as a black male, 6’0”, black hoodie and black pants.

Forgery – 11299 San Pablo Ave, Ste. L (Check In To Cash)
At 2:30 pm, an officer reports a 45 year old Richmond woman attempted to cash a check for $542.50 made out to a local trash company after hand writing her own name above the company name.  The suspect fled, without the check, prior to police arrival.

Petty Theft – 3200 block of Santa Clara Ave
At 2:48 p,, an officer reports the rear license plate was stolen from the victim’s 2015 Toyota Corolla sometime between 3:00 pm on 1/17/2022 and 8:00 am on 1/18/2022.