Palo Alto Home Burglarized, Car Stolen

<p>Palo Alto police are investigating a burglary of an occupied home that occurred earlier this month&comma; where the unknown suspect also stole the resident’s car&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>On Thursday&comma; December 9&comma; 2021&comma; at about 10&colon;12 a&period;m&period;&comma; the Palo Alto dispatch center received a call reporting a residential burglary and vehicle theft that had occurred earlier that morning at a home in the 2300 block of Middlefield Road&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The victim&comma; a woman in her sixties&comma; reported that she had gone to bed at about 3&colon;30 a&period;m&period; and had noticed that her car was parked in her driveway at that time&period;  At about 9&colon;30 a&period;m&period;&comma; the victim went downstairs and discovered the rear door to her home was open&period;  She saw that some closet doors were left open as well&comma; and that her desktop computer had been unplugged&period;  She then noticed that her car was no longer in the driveway&comma; that the car keys were missing&comma; and that a digital camera was gone as well&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The investigation revealed that the unknown suspect had entered the home via the rear door&comma; which had been left unlocked&period;  A check of neighboring homes for any available surveillance footage revealed that the victim’s vehicle was driven out of her driveway at 6&colon;35 a&period;m&period;  There is no available description of the suspect at this time&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The stolen vehicle is a light blue 2001 Toyota Prius with several bumper stickers on the rear bumper&period;  As of the date and time of this release&comma; the vehicle has not been located&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Residential burglaries of occupied homes are rare in Palo Alto&comma; despite another one being reported on Saturday&comma; November 27&period;  This is the fourth such case in 2021&period;  Detectives are investigating&comma; but have no information connecting any of the crimes with one another&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Most residential burglars commit their crimes during the day&comma; when homes are more likely to be unoccupied and the chance of a confrontation with a resident are correspondingly reduced&period;  If you have a side yard gate&comma; police recommend putting a lock on it to prevent easy unauthorized access to your property&period;  Police also recommend securing all windows and doors overnight&period;  If you choose to hide a key outside your residence in the event you ever get locked out&comma; recognize that involves a potential risk&semi; as an alternative&comma; consider leaving a spare house key with a trusted neighbor&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;