Detectives followed up on a strong-arm robbery case from March 2022, where two suspects stole a cell phone from a victim’s hand, and arrested the first of two suspects this week after conducting extensive follow-up investigation.
On Monday, March 14, 2022, at about 9:41 a.m., our 24-hour dispatch center received a call from a woman in her forties who reported that her cell phone had just been stolen by two suspects who ran past her in the 2000 block of Webster Street. The victim said the suspects had gotten in a car parked nearby, and that the vehicle had left the area. Police responded immediately but did not locate the suspects or their vehicle.
The investigation revealed that the victim had been walking on the sidewalk, talking on her cell phone. She noticed two males were walking behind her for about two minutes, before she heard running footsteps. As the suspects ran past her, one of the grabbed the cell phone out of her hand. They ran across the street to a white four-door sedan that had been parked around the corner and got into the passenger side of the car. The victim last saw the vehicle driving westbound on Santa Rita Avenue. The victim ran back to her nearby home and called the police. Police distributed a news release about the robbery on March 15, 2022.
Detectives have been conducting extensive follow-up investigation into the case and were able to identify one of the suspects as a male from Redwood City who was a 17-year-old juvenile at the time of the crime. On June 23, 2023, detectives obtained a probable cause arrest warrant charging the suspect with one count of robbery (a felony).
On Wednesday, June 28, 2023, at about 4:45 p.m., detectives arrested the suspect without incident in the 500 block of Alden Street in Redwood City. Police transported the suspect to the Santa Clara County Juvenile Hall pursuant to the warrant. In accordance with our standard release of information procedures, no additional information on the suspect is available since he was under the age of 18 at the time of the crime. We do not release booking photographs of juveniles in these situations.
The robbery investigation remains open in the event detectives can identify and arrest the second suspect. It should be noted that detectives do not believe the arrested suspect or this robbery was connected to a separate crime that occurred on March 15, 2022 (which was mentioned in the original news release).
Anyone with information about this incident is asked to call our 24-hour dispatch center at (650) 329-2413. Anonymous tips can be e-mailed to [email protected] or sent via text message or voice mail to (650) 383-8984.
