Man Arrested for Lewd Act at Safeway

<p><strong>PALO ALTO<&sol;strong> <strong>–<&sol;strong> A man who committed a lewd act in the self-checkout line of a Safeway grocery store in Palo Alto in January is now in custody&comma; pursuant to a warrant detectives obtained for that crime and a new similar incident that occurred in American Canyon earlier this week&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>On the morning of Wednesday&comma; January 26&comma; 2022&comma; an unknown suspect stood very close behind a woman in her twenties while in the self-checkout line of Safeway at 2811 Middlefield Road&period;  A review of surveillance video showed the suspect masturbating while standing immediately behind the victim&period;  Once outside the store&comma; the victim noticed what she believed to be biological fluid on the back of her shirt and pants and called police the next day&period;  On January 29&comma; the Police Department <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;cityofpaloalto&period;org&sol;News-Articles&sol;Police-Department&sol;Man-Commits-Lewd-Act-in-Grocery-Store-Checkout-Line">distributed a news release about the incident<&sol;a> and included a surveillance image of the unknown suspect and his vehicle&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>After the news release went out&comma; a woman in her forties contacted the Police Department to report that the same man had followed her around the Palo Alto Safeway on January 26 as well&period;  She believed he had been taking photos of her with his cell phone&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Through the ensuing investigation&comma; detectives were able to identify the suspect as 27-year-old Christian Alpha Roberts of Oakland&period;  Detectives were also able to connect Roberts to a similar crime that happened at a grocery store in Santa Clara on February 13&period;  Detectives submitted the completed case to the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office for review and obtained an arrest warrant for Roberts on April 14 charging him with sexual battery&comma; battery&comma; and indecent exposure &lpar;all misdemeanors&rpar; for the incidents in Palo Alto and Santa Clara&period;  Detectives attempted to locate and arrest the suspect on the warrant but had been unable to find him&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>On May 2&comma; 2022&comma; a similar crime occurred in the Walmart in American Canyon with a similarly described suspect&period;  Palo Alto detectives worked in close collaboration with investigators from the Napa County Sheriff’s Office&comma; who were ultimately able to identify the suspect in the American Canyon case as Roberts&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>On the morning of Wednesday&comma; May 4&comma; 2022&comma; personnel from the Napa County Sheriff’s Office arrested Roberts for the American Canyon crime and also served the arrest warrant for the Palo Alto and Santa Clara crimes&period;  For more information on the arrest&comma; <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;facebook&period;com&sol;photo&sol;&quest;fbid&equals;360073706150856&amp&semi;set&equals;a&period;221199203371641">refer to the news release from the American Canyon Police Department<&sol;a>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;