|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
A woman walked into the U.S. Bank in Menlo Park on Friday afternoon and, after handing the teller a note demanding money, left with an undisclosed amount of cash, according to the police report.
The bank is at 1105 El Camino Real, next to Stacks’ restaurant at Santa Cruz Avenue.
The suspect may be linked to other bank robberies in the Bay Area, Menlo Park police said. Witnesses described her as a Hispanic or Pacific Islander woman in her mid-30s with dark hair in a ponytail. She wore a grey sweatshirt, jeans and a baseball cap.
No weapon was seen and no one was injured, Police Sgt. Matthew Ortega said.
Police ask that anyone with information about this crime, committed around 1:46 p.m., to call investigators at 330-6300.
This is the second case of a woman robbing a bank in downtown Menlo Park in the past 10 days. On Oct. 29, a woman robbed the nearby Bank of the West at 701 Santa Cruz Ave. at Curtis Street.
The timing of this reporting is a little off. I was in front of the US Bank at 1:45 and took a photo of the MP police who had already arrived and were standing in front of the bank with machine guns drawn. Either that was an instantaneous response and she got out the back door, or she was there a bit earlier.
Good that you were there John. Other than the time being off did you see the bank robber running off.
Hmmmm, “Crooks”, why do you ask?
Hello All,
Doesn’t it seem like there is a more local crime lately? Bank robberies, car break-ins, etc., etc.
I wonder if it is because of the recent state requirements to take criminals out of state prison and put them into local county jails. I believe that probably allows criminals to serve less time overall and get back into society sooner, where they can commit more crimes.
This is just a feeling I have. I don’t remember hearing about so many crimes before, in Menlo Park.
Does anyone else have any thoughts about this? Does anyone have any data about this?
Thanks…
Surely the bank has video of this woman, so why doesn’t the Almanac get a photo and publish it along with the story? I hope the reporter follows up and gets this crook’s photo.
Dear Member:
Yes, there has definitely been an uptick in crime in Menlo Park for at least the last two years, and it has definitely jumped Middlefield and is heading West. I don’t know all the causes or how the jail/prison thing effects lengths of sentences. There were like no incidents, and then after a bus route change in August 2012, the number of thefts, particularly from unlocked garages, just shot up. It may be a coincidence. There was a report about two months ago that detectives from around the Bay Area noted a general increase in burglaries on the peninsula and were meeting/coordinating about it.
Correction: The number of incidents in my neighborhood shot up with the bus route change. Again, there may have been something else that changed at the same time. I assume the detectives are looking at all the changes for the timeline of increased crime.
Yes, Chris. Let’s see pics from both Bank of the West & US Bank. If anyone recognizes the person, MPPD would be glad for the info, right? Either that or scare her away from MP to other towns with more aggressive pursuit experience.