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Menlo Park woman busts teen burglars; three arrested

by Sandy Brundage

Around 3 p.m. on a quiet, sunny Sept. 26 afternoon, a 41-year-old Menlo Park woman noticed something peculiar in her backyard: Two teenage boys testing whether a sliding glass door, or possibly a bedroom window, might let them enter her house uninvited.

The pair left the Windermere Avenue property after discovering the answer was, "No." According to the crime log, police greeted the 16-year-olds a short distance away and escorted them to Hillcrest Juvenile Hall for attempted burglary and possession of marijuana.

The teen reportedly told police that earlier that Monday, they had broken into a home via a garage door in the 1200 block of Henderson Avenue and ransacked two bedrooms. A third suspect, a 15-year-old boy from East Palo Alto, was also arrested in connection with those cases, police spokesperson Nicole Acker said.

Other burglars were equally unsuccessful. The owner of a maintenance shop in the 1300 block of Willow Road told police around 8:30 a.m. the same day that someone had been in the shop without permission during the weekend, but didn't take anything or force entry.

Continuing a losing streak, burglars struck at least twice more in Menlo Park on Tuesday, Sept. 27, but only stole once.

An alarm at a home in the 1000 block of Atkinson Lane scared away whomever tried to pry open the door, the owner reported to police shortly after 10 a.m.

Some residents living in the 100 block of Cornell Road weren't so lucky. They lost jewelry, a laptop, and two digital cameras during the early afternoon, thanks to unidentified suspects who removed the screen from a rear window for an all-access pass to the home.