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Driver charged in Menlo Park car break-in
A Redwood City teenager was charged with residential burglary after allegedly serving as the “getaway driver” for two people who broke into a car in the underground parking garage of the Country Sharon Apartments in Menlo Park on Aug. 3.
Shortly after midnight, an off-duty Atherton police officer called 911 to report two hooded individuals running from the garage after a car alarm was triggered, San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said. The officer also reported seeing a dark SUV leaving the area.
While canvassing the neighborhood, Menlo Park police officers found an SUV matching that description in the nearby Safeway parking lot. Officers spoke with the driver, Julio Alexis Talavera Saavedra, 18, who consented to a search of the vehicle, Wagstaffe said. Police found burglary tools and an Autel device, which can be used to unlock cars without triggering an alarm.
Talavera Saavedra told officers he had driven two people to the apartments to break into cars and that the pair had fled on foot after the alarm sounded, according to Wagstaffe. Police cited and released him at the scene; the two other suspects remain at large.
Later that afternoon, Talavera Saavedra was charged with felony residential burglary and misdemeanor possession of burglary tools. Because the garage is attached to the apartment building, California law treats the break-in as a residential burglary rather than a vehicular burglary, which carries a much lighter possible sentence, Wagstaffe said.
Talavera Saavedra is scheduled to be arraigned on Sept. 3. He faces a maximum sentence of six years and six months in state prison.
Kendra’s Spa burglary
Kendra’s Spa at 1135 Chestnut St. in Menlo Park was broken into around 5:30 a.m. on July 24, owner Kendra Dinh said in an email to The Almanac.
The suspects only got away with an empty cash box. Dinh said that the would-be thieves broke through the door to enter the spa.
“What a shock to start the day, right?” Dinh added.
