Purse-snatching suspects found in San Francisco after brazen daytime robbery
Delbin Noe Hernandez-Elvir
PALO ALTO — The Palo Alto Police Department has announced the arrest of two dangerous purse-snatching suspects.
38-year-old Delbin Noe Hernandez-Elvir of San Francisco and 33-year-old transient Oscar Manuel Elena were identified as purse-snatching suspects who had been targeting women near the Stanford Shopping Center in Palo Alto.
Oscar Manuel Elena
According to Palo Alto Police, “On Tuesday, January 10, 2017, at about 2:15 p.m., our 24-hour dispatch center received a report of a robbery that had just occurred at the Stanford Shopping Center at 180 El Camino Real in the parking lot on the mall’s north side.”
During the investigation into the robbery, it was determined that a woman walking with her mother were targeted by a driver and passenger who had pulled up next to them. That is when Elena sprung from the passenger side door of a 1996 Lexus ES-300, grabbing onto the younger woman’s purse.
Dragging her to the ground, the mother of the victim cried out, having Elena let go of the purse he was trying to take from the woman and got back into the car. Both Hernandez-Elvir and Elena drove away.
The victim was able to describe the vehicle used by the suspects. She also gave a detailed description of Elena who had tired to take her purse. The victim described a Hispanic male that stood around 5’8” tall wearing a gray hoodie and trying to disguise his face.
According to Palo Alto Police, “During the course of the investigation, officers located an alert witness who had observed the suspect vehicle and wrote down the license plate.”
The description of the suspects matched another incident that had occurred on Saturday, January 7, at about 6:21 p.m. at Stanford Shopping Center. In a conducted surveillance at the suspects’ known residence, detectives followed two men driving the same vehicle used in the attempted robbery.
Two men were seen driving on the 400 block of Andover Street in San Francisco, when they were stopped by police and taken into custody. Evidence found inside the suspects car was identified as a stolen purse and personal property taken from another victim from the Stanford Shopping Center that Saturday night.
Police booked Hernandez-Elvir into the Santa Clara County Main Jail for one count of felony robbery and one count of felony attempted robbery, and pursuant to an outstanding misdemeanor warrant for shoplifting and providing false information to a peace officer.
Anyone with information about this incident is asked to call the Palo Alto Police Department’s 24-hour dispatch center at 650-329-2413. Anonymous tips can be e-mailed to paloalto@tipnow.org or sent via text message or voice mail to 650-383-8984.
