4 arrested following retail theft at Lululemon store, hit-and-run crash in Palo Alto
PALO ALTO (CBS SF) -- Four people who allegedly fled from an organized retail theft at a Lululemon store in Palo Alto Friday and became involved in a hit-and-run crash were arrested in Hayward, police said Monday.
The theft happened at the Lululemon on the 400 block of University Ave. at about 2 p.m. Friday. Palo Alto police said store staffers reported two women and a man had entered the store, grabbed several items of merchandise and fled to a getaway vehicle with at least one other person inside.
The store workers were able to provide a description of the getaway vehicle, a BMW X5 SUV as well as its license plate number. Police said at about the same time officers were responding to the store theft, police learned of a hit-and-run crash on Homer Avenue at Cowper St., about three blocks east of the Lululemon store, where the description of the suspect vehicle was similar.
Officers who responded to the hit-and-run crash determined the suspect vehicle had been heading south on Cowper Street when it ran the stop sign at Homer Avenue and hit a 2010 Toyota pickup truck. Both vehicles were damaged but there were no injuries reported.
The BMW was located heading east on Highway 92 on the San Mateo-Hayward Bridge, police said. Officers pulled it over on the 27000 block of Industrial Avenue in Hayward and placed took all five people inside in custody.
Inside the car, officers found all of the stolen property from the store, which totaled 54 items valued at about $5,800. One of the five occupants of the car was released, but the four others were all booked into the Santa Clara County Main Jail on felony organized retail theft charges.
They were identified as Dominique Chaz Shawaun Carter, 26, of Modesto; Anita Snell, 25, of Modesto; Maliyah Fa Janay Scott, 24, of Stockton; and Jamil Naylor Harris Jr.,20, of Stockton.
Carter was also booked on a misdemeanor hit-and-run charge and on two outstanding felony warrants. One was for grand theft and fraudulent possession of personal identifying information out of the Glendale Police Department; the other for organized retail theft and possession of stolen property out of the Los Gatos-Monte Sereno Police Department. Snell also had an outstanding felony warrant for grand theft by the San Jose Police Department.
Anyone with information about the incident was asked to call the Palo Alto Police Department's 24-hour dispatch center at (650) 329-2413. Anonymous tips can also be emailed to paloalto@tipnow.org or texted to 650-383-8984.
