Police arrested four suspects on Saturday night who broke into an unoccupied residence after the resident spotted them remotely in real-time via a home security system.
On Saturday, June 15, 2024, at about 9:29 p.m., our 24-hour dispatch center received a call reporting an in-progress burglary at an unoccupied home in the 2300 block of Byron Street. The resident, a woman in her sixties who was overseas at the time, received a notification from her home security system and was able to see multiple strangers breaking into her house.
Police responded immediately and upon arrival, saw three suspects running from the home and start jumping over fences to escape. Officers gave chase and were soon able to stop and arrest all three nearby without incident. One suspect complained of pain due to having jumped off the second-floor balcony of the home when fleeing; paramedics from the Palo Alto Fire Department evaluated him and released him at the scene.
While searching the area after the first three arrests, officers located a black 2018 Chevrolet Tahoe parked near the victim’s residence bearing a license plate that belonged on a Ford. When officers went to investigate further, they found a fourth suspect (a 17-year-old juvenile) hiding on the backseat floorboard and took him into custody without incident. Police towed the suspect vehicle to process it for evidence.
The investigation revealed the suspects had forced entry via breaking open a glass door on a second-floor balcony. Once inside, they ransacked two upstairs bedrooms, and had loaded personal property into two bags at the time police interrupted the crime. Police recovered a flashlight at the scene, as well as a window punch tool that one of the suspects discarded while fleeing. Police also located another window punch tool in the pocket of one of the suspects. One of the suspects was wearing two expensive wristwatches (one man’s watch and one woman’s watch) and had a woman’s diamond ring in his sock that officers believe are likely stolen property; ownership of these items is still under investigation, to include whether they were stolen from the Byron Street address or somewhere else. Ownership of the Tahoe, as well as the license plate affixed to it, remains under investigation; neither the car nor the plate had been reported to police as stolen.
The arrestees told police they were visiting the United States from Chile, so none had local addresses of residence. Police booked 23-year-old Christian Cerveracolan and 18-year-old Jorge Pacheco into the Santa Clara County Main Jail for residential burglary and conspiracy (both felonies) and misdemeanor resisting arrest (for running from officers). Pacheco was also booked for misdemeanor possession of burglary tools. The booking photos of both of these suspects are available at www.cityofpaloalto.org/PAPDnews.
Police arrested the other two suspects for residential burglary and conspiracy (both felonies) and two misdemeanors, resisting arrest (for running from officers) and possession of burglary tools. As these two suspects are both 17-year-old males, police transported them to the Santa Clara County Juvenile Hall. In accordance with our standard release of information procedures, no additional information on those suspects is available since they are under the age of 18.
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.
