Police have arrested the suspect who carjacked a motorhome in Palo Alto last week and returned the stolen vehicle to the victim.
On Friday, October 20, 2023, at about 12:35 a.m., our 24-hour dispatch center received a call of a carjacking that had just occurred on the 400 block of Matadero Avenue. The victim, a man in his sixties, had been asleep in his parked vehicle immediately in front of his motorhome. The noise of the engine starting on his motorhome awakened him, and he went out to find an unknown suspect in the driver’s seat. There was a brief struggle between the two men, resulting in the victim falling from the driver’s side step of the motorhome as the suspect drove it away. For more information, read the news release that we distributed about the crime on October 21.
On Wednesday, October 25, 2023, shortly before 11:00 a.m., officers from the East Palo Alto Police Department observed the stolen motorhome driving in their city near the Ravenswood Shopping Center. They stopped the motorhome on Wilks Street at Gates Street in East Palo Alto, detained the male driver and a female passenger without incident, and notified detectives from the Palo Alto Police Department.
The subsequent investigation revealed that the male driver was indeed the suspect who had carjacked the motorhome from the victim. The female passenger was not connected or involved in the carjacking and was later released by East Palo Alto Police Department personnel. Palo Alto detectives took custody of the suspect and returned the stolen motorhome to the victim.
Police booked 27-year-old Omar Alexis Romero Perez of East Palo Alto into the Santa Clara County Main Jail for carjacking and elder abuse (as the victim was more than 65 years old), both felonies. His booking photo is available at www.cityofpaloalto.org/PAPDnews.
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.
