Features

Grounds for arrest 

Officers are looking for the man who hurled hot coffee into the face of a clerk at the Holiday Express on Christmas Eve, reports Berkeley police spokesperson Officer Ed Galvan. 

The suspect, a registered guest at the hotel, threw the coffee about 1 p.m. on the 24th to punctuate a dispute. 

Berkeley Fire Department paramedics treated the injured man at the scene. The inhospitable guest is being sought for arrest on one count of assault with a deadly weapon. 

Lotion commotion 

The objects thrown in the second Christmas Eve imbroglio caused no harm. 

The items—four bottles of body lotion shoplifted from the shelves of the Walgreen’s at 2187 Shattuck Ave—were hurled in a confrontation with a security guard after the booster left the store just before 6 p.m. 

The frustrated, and presumably chafed, thief then fled. 

Blackberryed 

A pair of grinches in black sweatshirts used the old I’ve-gotta-gun-in-my-pocket ploy to steal Christmas cheer along with a Blackberry data device and a wallet from a 47-year-old Berkeley woman on Christmas day. 

The perfidious pair approached the woman as she was walking near the corner of 63rd and California streets just after 2:30. After the crime they hoofed it south. 

Telegraph robbery 

A clutch of as many as five bandits, headed by a felonious fellow armed with a chromed semi-automatic pistol and clad in a purple hoodie, robbed an 18-year-old Hercules man of his cell phone as he stood outside Larry Blake’s restaurant in the 2300 block of Telegraph Avenue just before 11 p.m. on the 28th. 

Officer Galvan said the victim delayed calling police until he had traveled to the other side of town, and the suspects were long gone before officers arrived. 

Campus rat pack 

A 38-year-old man was hurled to the ground, where he was beaten and robbed by a gang of three bandits who attacked him as he crossed the Star of David bridge on the UC Berkeley Campus  

Dec. 30. 

According to campus police, one suspect grabbed the man by the arm and hurled him to the ground, where a second held him down as another robber rifled his pockets. 

When the man tried to resist, the rat packers punched him in the face, then fled with his valuables. 

The victim, who was not seriously injured, called police several minutes later, but the rat pack was long gone by the time they arrived. 

Octogenarian resists 

An 81-year-old Pennsylvania man successful battled off the bandit who shoved him to the ground at a gas station in the 1500 block of University Avenue just before 6 p.m. on the 30th. 

“The guy went for his wallet, and he fought him off,” said Officer Galvan. 

The suspect, a darkly clad man in his 20s, was gone by the time officers arrived.