Features

Speaks Loudly with Big Stick 

Reversing the maxim of Teddy Roosevelt, a not-so-gentlemanly and highly verbal fellow engaged in verbal disputation with another fellow Sunday evening near the Top Dog South on Durant Avenue raised a large stick and threatened to beat his co-antagonist. 

Since the fellow receiving the threat saw that the stick-wielder’s buddies were willing to add their own muscle to the incipient fracas, he fled the scene and called police. 

Before officers arrived, the adversaries decamped, said Berkeley Police spokesperson Officer Joe Okies. 

Purse Snatcher Succeeds 

A 20-something male grabbed the handbag of a woman walking along Fifth Street near its intersection with Camellia Street then jumped into a white car and fled. Police haven’t identified a suspect. 

Greeted with a Bang 

A resident who lives near the corner of Le Conte and Euclid avenues received a somewhat disconcerting surprise on responding to a doorbell ring late Monday afternoon. 

Opening the door, the resident received an explosive greeting, which, upon further investigation, was revealed to have been a firecracker. 

Since fireworks are banned by municipal ordinance, police were summoned to the scene, only to find that the key piece of evidence had auto-destructed and its igniter had fled forthwith. 

Citizens Corner Crook 

When a 20-year-old bandit tapped the till of the Enterprise Rent-a-Car location at the corner of Oxford Street and Berkeley Way whilst strongarming an employee Monday afternoon, civilian passers-by raised the hue and cry, surrounding the suspect and enabling police to make an arrest, said Officer Okies. 

Wrong Place, Wrong Time 

Police who stopped a suspicious looking fellow near the corner of Shattuck Avenue and Kittredge Street found out just why the aforementioned fellow had aroused their attentions. 

When a quick search turned up unspecified stolen property and the ubiquitous drug paraphernalia, the ambulatory felon compounded his fix by offering up a name not his own. 

He was given ample time to ponder his foibles in the municipal hoosegow. 

Citizen Tip Catches Robber 

An alert citizen, outraged at seeing a bandit rob a victim in a wheelchair near the corner of California Street and Alcatraz Avenue, made a call to 911 at 5:47 p.m. Tuesday.  

Officers were quickly able to identify the 33-year-old suspect and haul him off to jail, said Officer Okies. 

Berkeley High Brouhahas 

Police were summoned to Berkeley High School twice after classes closed Thursday afternoon. In the first instance, two boys had attacked another, with two others joining in. The arrival of officers quickly set things aright. 

Just minutes later came a second report, and officers arrived to find a sizable crowd encircling young female combatants. Finding no ambulance-worthy injuries, officers left the discipline to school officials.›