PALO ALTO, CA – Police arrested a man last Wednesday night after he entered an occupied home.
On Wednesday, July 3, 2024, at about 10:40 p.m., the Palo Alto 24-hour dispatch center received a call reporting a residential burglary that had just occurred in the 1300 block of Hamilton Ave. The investigation revealed that at about 10:20 p.m, the resident, a male in his fifties, had returned home from a walk to find a male subject on a bicycle in the driveway of his home. The resident confronted the subject, who rode away. The resident went into his home and did not summon police at that time.
A short time later, though, the resident heard his front door open and went downstairs to investigate. The resident found the same male subject from earlier standing on his front porch. When confronted by the victim, the suspect acknowledged having just been inside the house, and then fled on his bicycle. Officers responded to the area and, after reviewing the victim’s security cameras, determined that the suspect had entered the victim’s home via an unlocked front door and wandered around the first floor for about 5 minutes, before being confronted by the victim. The victim did not notice anything missing or damaged.
Officers checking the area located the suspect nearby and detained him without incident.
Police booked 39-year-old Maurice Vasquezlopez of Redwood City into the Santa Clara County Main Jail for residential burglary and parole violation (both felonies). Vasquezlopez is on active parole stemming from a prior conviction of assault with a deadly weapon. His booking photo appears above.