Features

Belated report 

A San Francisco watchmaker called Berkeley police late in the afternoon on Feb. 10 to report that he’d been robbed of a laptop computer, a watch and some of the tools of his trade four days earlier in the 2700 block of San Pablo Avenue. 

The man said he’d finally been moved to report the heist for insurance reasons, said Officer Galvan. 

Shots fired  

Responding to calls of shots fired in the area of the 2900 block of Acton Street, Berkeley police officers found two shell casings and vague reports of people running on the street and a dark, two-door American car last seen heading away on Ashby Avenue. 

No victims of the shooting or any bullet holes were found. 

Robbery 

A 25-year-old man reported that he was robbed of a small amount of cash by another man shortly before midnight Feb. 10 in the 2700 block of Ellsworth Street. 

Unjust desserts 

A man carrying a note threatening violence if he wasn’t given cash walked into Gelato Milano at 3170 Shattuck Ave., downtown Berkeley’s newest ice cream store, just before 5:30 p.m. on Feb. 11. 

After ordering a young woman behind the counter to lie face-down on the floor, the bandit cleaned out the cash drawer and escaped, said Officer Galvan. The clerk was not injured, he said. 

Bowled over 

A man who robbed a Berkeley Bowl customer of his food outside the store on the afternoon of Feb. 12 was apprehended by officers who discovered that he had leapt over a fence into the courtyard of a building on Emerson Street nearby. 

The 38-year-old suspect, a homeless man, was taken into custody without further incident and booked on suspicion of robbery. 

Drive-by bust 

Summoned to the Alta Bates Summit Medical Center Emergency Room at 6 p.m. Feb. 12 by a report that a gunshot victim had appeared at the hospital, Berkeley police found a man with a gunshot wound to the right elbow and little to say. 

“He refused to talk,” said Officer Galvan. 

Further investigation revealed that the man was one of two occupants of a car that had been involved in a drive-by shooting in Richmond earlier in the day and who had been fired on in return by a Richmond police officer. 

Berkeley officers kept the man in custody until he could be treated and handed over to their counterparts in Richmond. 

Stabbed but silent 

Berkeley police rushed to the 1400 block of Alcatraz Avenue just before midnight Feb. 12, responding to a caller who said a man had just been stabbed in the back by his girlfriend. 

Arriving at the residence, officers found the 28-year-old victim, who had next to nothing to say to them. He was transported to a local hospital for treatment of non-life-threatening injuries. 

Officers still want to question the missing companion, who is 25. 

Hot stuff 

A West Berkeley contractor with offices in the 900 block of Pardee Street called police Feb. 13 in the morning to report that sometime over the weekend, persons unknown had entered his property with a lock-cutter and made off with a $10,000 gas welder. 

Faked out 

Later that afternoon a man wearing a beanie and pointing a fake handgun proved less than convincing to the folks at the Chevron station at 1201 The Alameda, who refused to part with their cash. 

Frustrated, the faker fled. 

Knife threat 

Police took a 14-year-old boy into custody for brandishing a deadly weapon after he threatened another teenager in the 2800 block of Ellsworth Street just before 7 p.m. that evening. 

Two bandits 

A pair of robbers, at least one of them carrying a pistol, robbed a 27-year-old woman of her cash in the 2700 block of Claremont Avenue just before noon on Feb. 14. The woman was not hurt, said Officer Galvan. 

Rat packed 

A group of seven or eight teenagers from the Berkeley High School campus robbed a 16-year-old from Oakland of his iPod as he walked along the 2000 block of Kittredge Street last Wednesday afternoon, said Officer Galvan. 

Two carjacks 

A Richmond-based gang staged two carjackings in Berkeley last Wednesday, one successful and the other not. 

The first incident began near 1099 Murray St. where an Oakland man was approached by a gunman who ordered him out of his car, then got behind the wheel and sped away. The vehicle, a Honda, was later recovered on El Portal Drive in Richmond, said Officer Galvan. 

Those suspects remain at large. 

In the second incident, two bandits commandeered a car at 753 Hollis St. near the Emeryville border, then sped away. 

As they made their getaway, they managed to crash into the fence at Ashby Lumber at 824 Ashby Ave., where the duo—one 20 and the other 17—was taken into custody by Berkeley police and booked on suspicion of carjacking. 

Galvan said the two incidents were likely the work of the same gang.