Crime

North Berkeley sees rash of armed robberies

November 29, 2010 1:05 pm by Tracey Taylor

Ohlone Park: scene of a mid-morning armed robbery. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Matt Raimi was sitting in Ohlone Park at 11.30 in the morning on the Thursday before Thanksgiving chatting on his cell phone with a cabinet maker about a possible kitchen remodel when he felt something nudge him in the side. He looked up and saw a young man who demanded that Raimi hang up and give him the iPhone. The man — black, aged between 16 and 20 and about 5’7″, according to Raimi — had a semi-concealed gun in his pocket and was pointing it straight at him.

Raimi gave up his phone and wallet — the laptop bag at his feet was rejected after he explained it was empty. In fact, Raimi had just dropped off his computer at the shop to be repaired. Nobody witnessed the incident and the perpetrator has not yet been found.

Raimi, who runs an urban planning business close to Ohlone Park, is only one of several Berkeley residents to have been a victim of armed robbery in the north Berkeley area in the past few weeks. According to Berkeley Police Officer Casimiro Pierantoni,  six armed robberies have taken place in North Berkeley since November 11. Writing in his community newsletter Officer Pierantoni said the robberies were concentrated in the residential area around the North Berkeley BART station.

District 1 Councilmember Linda Maio, who distributed safety alert flyers to residents in her area after the crime wave, was reported as saying she believed the North Berkeley BART station might be entry point for criminals trying to take advantage of the affluent North Berkeley community.

Matt Raimi was told by a police detective that a similar crime to the one he experienced occurred later on the same day he was robbed, this time in south Berkeley. And on the following Sunday one of Raimi’s employees reported being in Ohlone park and coming across police officers investigating what sounded like a near-identical hold-up with a similar sounding perpetrator.

Car break-ins have also spiked over the past few weeks, including from cars parked for a brief time while children are taken into schools. Rosa Sheng was one of several such recent victims while she was dropping her daughter off at Marin School shortly after 8 am on Wednesday November 17. “My car was locked and parked across the street. I returned five minutes later to find my passenger side window smashed with a backpack missing. My wallet, phone and laptop and accessories were in it,”she told Berkeleyside. “Since that has happened, I have heard numerous stories of similar events happening nearby.”

Two families at Crowden School were affected and the music school’s Executive Director, Doris Fukawa, sent a note to parents warning that a “black, Jeep Cherokee/SUV type of vehicle with tinted windows has been seen to be scoping out parent drop-offs and pick-ups as well as unattended vehicles surrounding Jefferson School and Crowden.” Fukawa urged parents not to leave purses, briefcases, backpacks or valuables visible in their cars.

This advice is echoed by the city’s police department. ”Please, before you walk away from your parked car, always take a moment to check that you’ve left nothing of value in plain sight, regardless of what time of day it is or where you’re parking.  We all know we have an auto burglary problem in Area 1, so let’s do everything we can do to prevent them,” wrote Officer Pierantoni.

Calls to the Berkeley Police Department today were not returned. We will publish updates on developments as they arise.

38 Comments

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  • deirdre

    Break-ins of cars parked during school drop-offs and pick-ups is not a new phenomenon. It occurs year-in and year-out at many schools throughout Berkeley. Parents/Caregivers: don’t leave a bag, purse, laptop, phone, etc. visible in your car while you drop off your child.

  • jason

    dear north berkeley stick-up artist(s),
    when you attempt to rob me as i sit on a park bench, i will calmly give you my valuables. and then when you turn to flee, i’m going to POP A POISON DART IN YOUR ASS.

  • Dan Alpert

    Oh no, Jason, now you’ve blown it — the perpetrator will demand wallets, iphones and poison dart guns!

  • CJ Higley

    OK folks — all hands on deck! Let’s all keep our eyes and ears open and report suspicious behavior to BPD immediately so we can put an end to this crime spree.

  • Sarah

    Never leave your bag in your car when dropping off or picking up a kid — even out of sight. At our old preschool, the thief would watch parents leave their cars and knew that any woman walking without a purse had left it in the car or hidden it in the trunk. We warned parents every year and people still left their valuables in the car.

  • http://instructables.com lee

    this is what we get when we live between oakland and richmond. our neighborhood happens to be close to the freeway and major streets…to be honest I’ve lived in northwest berkeley for 5 years and I’m tired off this crime. My car windows in my driveway have been smashed 2x….and we wonder why people want to live in the suburbs

  • Jen

    Wow, Lee…”this is what we get when we live between oakland and richmond…” I’ll look past the classist and racist inferences here, and just say this:
    People who love living here do so not despite the (semi-)urban landscape, but because of it. Naturally that comes with its downsides. But would you leave a purse in open sight in any residential neighborhood in San Francisco? If you’re sick of the “riff raff,” perhaps you *should* move to the suburbs, it sounds more like what you were hoping Berkeley was going to be for you. (For what it’s worth, I, too, live in the flats off of two busy streets, and deal with about one broken car window a year…but this is always as a result of having been forgetful and leaving something of value inside.)

  • Lauren

    I would certainly feel safer if there was increased security at the BART station if Linda Maio’s hunch about North Berkeley BART turns out to be correct. Any word from BPD or BART about the proximity of the crimes to NB BART?

  • G

    Jen who seems determined to call anyone mad at crime a “racist” is obscene.

    We’re being assaulted, people. We have every right to fight back and call a spade a spade.

  • Frank Nachtman

    A flyer and a hunch aren’t going to help. As a resident of this neighborhood, I’d like to see more of a police presence and to hear about what us being done to stop this crime wave.

  • not gruntled

    I guess Jen loves the frisson of living with “riff raff” and their crime. Of course, we over-capitalized libs should rightly give up some of our property to those more deserving. Personally, I’d like to see more police and more cameras.

  • laura menard

    Jen,

    did you miss Berkeleyside picking up the AP wire story covering the annual Congressional Quarterly rating of cities by crime rate placing Richmond at #6 and
    Oakland #5.

    Please explain why folks who live in cities of similar size enjoy social and cultural standards that do not blame the victims for criminal activity that plagues their hometowns.

  • Lauren

    JEN…Maybe if fewer people like you didn’t just accept the crime as normal and more of us were outraged by it we could see some change i have lived here for almost 50 years and i don’t just accept it and look the other way, once we look at crime as just a way of life here in Berkeley
    we have lost the fight and might as well live in north Richmond, west Pittsburg,or Oakland for that matter and that’s not the place i chose to spend my life. JEN maybe you are the person who needs to re-visit your choice of cities to live in, sounds like you would be right at home in some of the locations i mentioned. We the citizens of Berkeley need to send a message that we aren’t easy targets and we report all suspicious activity until BPD gets sick of the phone calls and gets the message that we aren’t Oakland,Richmond, or Pittsburg and we don’t JUST ACCEPT IT AS NORMAL.

  • Ephemerol

    One can visually “see” some or a portion of these predators scanning cars in my neighborhood visually as they arrive on bicycles from 1 am. to dawn here in North Berkeley. Yes, they are throw-a-way children from the ghetto and it’s real easy to ride up here and get out quickly after you break a car window or much worse. One of the multitude of reasons I am leaving Berkeley, and there are many, is just say this “one example” that I called into BPD as I walked up to Elephant Pharmacy one day in the afternoon hours on a beautiful sunny day. It was a new Mercedes parked across from Andronicos here and I could see the glass all around it as it’s widow had been broken in. Worse, the entire dashboard had been pried open and the radio removed. In front of me were two “white kids” in their late teens to early 20s and one of them said to the other, as the now failed burglar alarm system sputtered in it’s last dying gasp of it’s battery power supply, “Do you think we should call the police?”. They just walked on obvious and in denial and dissociation, which has it’s own price tag down life’s road. Berkeley, as with say Palo Alto is a candy store for street criminals from the ghetto as it’s filled with white teens who have “zero” street smarts as well as a host of other issues. HD neighborhood security cameras placed in just the correct location as well as announced as ‘operational’ even if they are not ( hint! ) will do wonders to keep this a *little* more off limits. As for me I am moving and leaving. I have heard, seen and experienced enough. You cannot do this in the ghetto without dramatic repercussions as life is *very* cheap there and people are armed. Time to tell it like it is vs. the way you want or desire it to be.

  • http://www.infospigot.com Dan

    Let’s have less political/sociological dialectics, folks on both sides, and more watchfulness and willingness to call the police when you see something suspicious (and when in doubt about what’s suspicious, listen to your instincts and drop a dime).

    The number to call (Berkeley police dispatch): 510 981 5900 or 519 981 5911 if you’re on a cellphone (dialing that number allows you to avoid the 911 default, which is routed through CHP).

  • laura menard

    New East Palo Alto license plate readers will run all plates through crime databases
    http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/inthepeninsula/detail?entry_id=78000&tsp=1

    another technology that aids crime fighting, I heard Chief Meehan say he would like this tool for BPD

  • p

    I was a victim of the rapist that hit several homes in N berkeley 2 years ago. The Berkeley Police were terribly lost, they had not a clue how to catch the guy. My bicycle had been stolen the night before and found at one of his other crime scenes (i got it back) and the BPD fumbled around with ridiculous ideas like putting gps on my bike and leaving out -in hopes that he would return to my home for the 3rd time . They weren’t even able to get their hands on a gps device so they dropped that idea. Im sorry but I have zero confidence in BPD. Why do they say its rare for a a perp to enter a home and rob and rape the inhabitants when it happened several times in one summer?? They are doing NOTHING except telling you to watch out and having community meetings. thanks for nothing. One bit of advise-Close and lock all the windows-if one is open even a crack a perp can enter the home. This is difficult in the warmer part of the year and the perps know it.

  • Jen

    I’m not calling anyone mad at crime a racist, I just take issue with the assumption that the criminals naturally must be from either Richmond or Oakland. Also, I am not denying that crime rates are too high, or are on the rise; but I guess my point is that rather than continue to gentrify and insulate why not try to do a little good for the worse-off sectors? Pointing fingers and moving away will never help downtrodden communities improve.
    LAUREN I have lived here my whole life, MY WHOLE LIFE, I’m 41 years old and don’t plan to leave. Sorry.

  • Mike Farrell

    Gee Jen:
    “Wow, Lee…”this is what we get when we live between oakland and richmond…” I’ll look past the classist and racist inferences here…”

    Berkeley is situated between the two biggest poverty pockets in the Bay Area, in Oakland and Richmond, and you’re saying that that doesn’t affect crime in Berkeley?

    BTW, I’m not sick of “riff raff” just the thugs and their apologists.

  • Mike Farrell

    Wow Jen
    “I’m not calling anyone mad at crime a racist..”

    “Wow, Lee…”this is what we get when we live between oakland and richmond…” I’ll look past the classist and racist inferences here”

    Oakland and Richmond have two of the most impoverished communities in the Bay Area, but that doesn’t affect crime in Berkeley?

    BTW, I’m not sick of “riff raff,” just thugs and their apologists.

  • TN

    It sure is convenient to blame our problems with crime on Oakland and Richmond. But as a close reader of news articles, I’ve noticed that people from Berkeley have been apprehended and accused of committing very serious crimes in other communities including those in Contra Costa County and Oakland. And no doubt much of the crime in Berkeley is committed by people who live here.

    Berkeley is not exempt from the issues which plague our society. Berkeley is an older inner city, like it or not. It has its great strengths and attractions but also shares the problems of our larger society.

  • Robert Leigh

    When we lived in North Berkeley, our car was broken into almost every night. I had a motorcycle parked outside that was set on fire one night. The next morning it was covered in what the police identified as gang graffiti. The police wanted to know if I’d had any problems with the local street gang. If you think all your crime is being caused by outsiders, you have your head in the sand.

  • Jen

    OK, Mike, you’re right–in response to what G said earlier, what I meant was: being mad at crime does not automatically make one a racist, or classist (unless, like Lee, you seem to assume all Berkeley crimes are committed by people from Richmond and/or Oakland).

    Thank you, TN, this is what I was trying to get across, my point was largely lost on people here who assumed I am fine with crime and decided to attack me for that. I’m not fine with crime.

  • Mike Farrell

    Certainly Berkeley has its’ homegrown criminals. And multi-generational crime families. But the suggestion that many crime in Berkeley are committed by people from Oakland and Richmond (and Antioch) is spot on.
    I have seen and heard many Berkeleyites contribute to crime in this town by NOT wanting to appear racist; not reporting suspicious activity, and excusing petty crimes committed by “oppressed” minority males.
    Wrong headed and an insult to the vast majority who do not pursue crime as a career option.

    I do have it on good authority, however, that Berkeley’s traffic problems are caused by the People from Walnut Creek.

  • Stacy

    Where the criminals come from is a moot point. The fact is they feel emboldened to commit these crimes in our city. Why? Next time you are driving home or to work, take a look around. The proliferation of graffiti in our city is staggering. There is a correlation between this and crime – do an internet search on “graffiti triggers crime”. Think about safer communities and how they look. Meanwhile, there seems to be no shortage of meter maids about town waiting to give you a parking ticket while picking up kids from school, going to the grocery store, etc. Perhaps, the City of Berkeley should redeploy these employees on graffiti removal and neighborhood watch. Food for thought…

  • Bill

    Wow, some interesting comments. We’ve lived in the flats near two major streets and a heavily traveled bike route for 27+ years. Though we’ve never been broken into a couple of our neighbors have but that totals maybe 3 times in 27 years. Car break ins on the block have been maybe 1 every year or two. Not to bad for being able to live in a wonderfully vibrant, walkable city, with great libraries, schools, theater and (not to say the least) food.

  • Ephemerol

    p says:
    November 30, 2010 at 8:43 am I was a victim of the rapist that hit several homes in N Berkeley 2 years ago. The Berkeley Police were terribly lost, they had not a clue how to catch the guy. My bicycle had been stolen the night before and found at one of his other crime scenes and the BPD fumbled around with ridiculous ideas like putting gps on my bike and leaving out -in hopes that he would return to my home for the 3rd time .
    P, I am deeply sorry that you and other women here and all over have to go through this continued deep urban psychopathology. While this may sound glib or nearly ironic coming from someone who was nearly murdered dead in North Berkeley years ago, your life is now changed and altered irrevocably. If this were a smaller City ( it’s not ) with a very different social dynamic that does not invite or support mayhem, squalor, choas and much worse ( try the race riots alone after the Rodney King verdict when the town was pretty much burn down flat ), your chances of capturing this predator would be a bit better. More disturbingly, it may have never ever transpired. The police department here cannot “protect” any of you from armed robbery, rape, murder, take over robberies, shootings and automotive theft as there are too many vectors involved as Berkeley is wedged in-between two major crime factories that produce predators faster than one can lock them up — also go directly to the Chief of Police if you have any problems with geting action in your case. So to condense all of this, all of us are really on our own here despite the sunshine and all of the urban perks. What most people do *not* know is that even if you are holding a person who has say threatened you with say a knife or if someone is kicking in a door etc. many times the local PD here does not have the time to respond as per it’s triage system and lack of resources. This is not Beverly Hills or Aspen, it’s the big city with all of it’s attendant ugly problems. You need to take care of business very quickly here yourself at all times. This is partially why I am leaving, however that is another discussion for another day and time.

    Hint # 1. Many woman have transferred to other Universities like UC Davis or Santa Barbara etc. just so they could live safer and quieter lives. Do not allow yourself to be a ‘victim of the crime’ life long also and get the best therapy available despite the horrid State Paperwork that most therapists will not accept. This predator will not live very long. Just let karma and the big city as well as the prison system run it’s course. Such people usually do not live very long.

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  • Bub

    Young black men have recently taken to committing pistol stickups in our community. That’s not an opinion, that’s the fact of the situation.

    Moderators — do you have a problem with that?

  • laura menard

    Folks,

    the fact is more citizens are becoming AWARE of violent crime while the high crime rates are not new. I have always joked that the official bird in Berkeley is the Ostrich becomes so many folks are so either in denial or provincial about Berkeley’s dirty little secrets.

    Surveillance cameras mandated for all business have proven useful in both reducing and solving violent crime in many cities. El Cerrito city council passed such an ordinance years ago, Berkeley city council was not even reviewing crime reports at that time.

    The BART stations have always been a target rich environment, I remember the first time BPD produced crime maps and the first thing that jumped out was the BART track.
    In 2008 south Berkeley and north Oakland activists put together a series of meetings with the intention of solving several long term issues regarding coordination between BART, OPD and BPD. ( Moore and Anderson take credit for the outcomes of this effort, they do not deserve any credit, they attended one meeting each). At one of the meetings BPD community services bureau brought crime data for review (a first), I asked how many of the robberies were committed with guns, a cursory review of two months of incidents revealed at least 50% of daytime robberies around Ashby BART involved guns. The media did not cover these meetings despite my efforts to get their attention and providing the data. We are spoon fed the city PR reporting without the benefit of investigative journalism.

    So many of the comments here could be easily answer with good data analysis if the city wanted such information public.

  • N Felnsdcu

    A while back, a guy matching the description in the above tried to rob me on the bike trail, adjacent to the tennis courts near Rose St. He had followed me a while, and I turned to face him when I heard him running. He showed me a gun, but I just yelled “get the f*** away” from me, and he left without my having given him anything. This was around 11pm.

    As a frequent late night BART passenger at the North Berkeley station, I have never seen any serious police activity in the area. One thing I do see often is BART cops in their parked cars in obsure corners of the parking lot talking to each other. Basically the BART cops need to be in the station (and not in cars), or actively patrolling all areas of parking lots.

    I have very little confidence in BART cops or the BPD. And frankly, I’d be afraid to call them, what with all the “accidental” shootings and taser use.

  • Tim C.

    Mike Farrell says:

    “I do have it on good authority, however, that Berkeley’s traffic problems are caused by the People from Walnut Creek.”

    If that’s a joke…haha, not bad. If it’s serious, you’re delusional: The traffic problem in Berkeley is caused by the wrong headed twerps in the City who put barricades and diverters up everywhere.

  • BS

    I bet this problem would go away on it’s own accord if Alameda county wasn’t so adverse to issuing CCW permits.

  • http://stefanco.com Stefan Lasiewski

    The Berkeley PD held a neighborhood meeting on Dec 2 to discuss these crimes. There is a second meeting this Thursday, December 9th at 7:00 pm. See the information below, or see the flyer at https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=1REU7cwhwzyp1N5i4UCQ9Xwqvbgc4fhC6E0AKic8p_hrePpTuCBdgF7-DQiVO&hl=en

    —–

    District 1 Meeting with Berkeley Police

    Thursday, December 9th at 7:00 pm

    Lutheran Church of the Cross
    1744 University Avenue

    Meet with the Berkeley Police Department about recent armed robberies of pedestrians in areas near and around Ohlone Park.

    We will learn about the events, what has been done so far, their strategy, and can ask our questions.

    Please join us and share this notice with your neighbors.

    NOTE: To see detail the police bulletins on recent crimes see: http://www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ContentDisplay.aspx?id=11120

    For questions, information, or to be placed on our email list for timely information write to: lmaio@cityofberkeley.info

    Councilmember Linda Maio 981-7110

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  • Berkeley resident

    Chief Meehan would like any tool that draws attention away from him.