Barney?!

By request, hopefully you can help a neighbor and community member not have to go through the same turmoil as this Alameda family, excerpts from his email:

Last Friday morning, our Versailles Avenue home was broken into while my wife was out grocery shopping. The thief was in our kitchen having a bowl of Fruity Pebbles cereal when she came home. Fortunately, he saw my wife’s car pull up and ran out our back door. A short while later, the same individual robbed another home on Pearl and took a shower while there. While we lost some items, the value was more sentimental than monetary. The one thing that really hurt was that thief broke into one of my kid’s piggy banks and stole his saved coins. Fortunately, no one was hurt.

We’d very much like to inform others so they can avoid this fate and perhaps help the Alameda Police catch and stop this person. I hope you will consider publishing this information on the Blogging Bayport Alameda website.

The thief was spotted on a neighbor’s surveillance camera – a tall black/Hispanic man with an average build. Before he entered our home, he was wearing a plain black baseball cap & carrying a clipboard – he looked very much like a meter-reader or a petitioner. When he left, he had on my wife’s A’s baseball cap (backwards) and one of our backpacks in which he carried the items he stole from our family.

Here’s a description of the truck the thief had parked on Lincoln Avenue. It was an old, dirty, white, Volvo, 3-axle tractor (no trailer attached). It’s pretty beat-up looking, had a blue rag as a gas cap, bent smokestack and expired tags on the plates. It looks very similar to the truck pictured here, but again was dirty White in color:

Should any of your readers spot this truck, please ask them to record the license plate and immediately call the Alameda Police department. Please remind your readers that their safety comes first! Please ask that they NOT approach any individuals, let the APD do that.

…

PS – As an aside, the folks at Pagano’s hardware were especially empathetic & helpful over the weekend. When I explained the circumstances to the gentleman at the plumbing counter, he helped repair my kids’ piggy bank to like-new condition at no charge AND gave my son 20 cents out of his pocket. Pagano’s has my business for life!

I don’t know what is worse about this sceanrio, the audacity of the thief casually eating kid’s cereal in their kitchen, taking a shower in another home he burglarized, or stealing the money out of a piggy bank.  So keep your eyes peeled for the Fruity Pebbles thief, but as recommended by the victim, don’t be a hero and try to approach them, just call the police and try to get the tag number to help the police catch them. 

Stay safe folks!