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Coin boxes in Menlo Park apartment laundry rooms have been targets in a series of burglaries and attempted burglaries recently. A suspect was arrested Aug. 3 in connection with two of the burglaries, and police are investigating whether other cases are connected.
Responding to a call at around 5:05 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 3, that reported banging noises coming from a darkened laundry room in the 1000 block of Madera Avenue, police discovered a man with a hammer and screwdriver trying to pry open a coin box, Menlo Park Police Department spokesperson Nicole Acker said.
Police arrested Jose Guadalupe Chavez-Sosa, 36, of Menlo Park on felony residential burglary charges. Police also found a bicycle and backpack they said belonged to the suspect parked outside an apartment complex next door, where another laundry room showed signs of having been burglarized, Ms. Acker said.
Police are trying to determine if there is a connection with other laundry room burglaries in downtown Menlo Park, including one on Glenwood Avenue on July 20, and two on Waverley Street and one on Burgess Drive on July 30 and 31, Commander Dave Bertini of the Menlo Park Police Department told the Almanac.
In the earlier burglaries, police reported losses of about $140 in coins.