Above: Jaime Martinez booking photo | Palo Alto PD
Palo Alto police have announced the arrest of a man suspected of breaking into and burglarizing an occupied home.
23-year-old Jaime Gonzalez Martinez was identified as the primary suspect in an alleged incident on the afternoon of Friday, November 11, in which an unknown man entered an occupied home and was scared off by a resident inside.
According to a police department press release, dispatch received a call shortly after 1:30 PM of a residential burglary on the 400 block of Fernando Avenue. The victim, identified as a woman in her 80s, told police that she heard a banging noise coming from the first floor and discovered an unknown man in her home. She screamed and the man fled, police said.
Investigating officers determined that the suspect had forced entry through a glass panel on a rear door, and had stolen a small vacuum cleaner before fleeing the home. Police later found parts of the vacuum scattered on the front lawn.
That afternoon, an officer spotted the suspect on the east side of El Camino Real, near Fernando Avenue, and chased him onto the property of the nearby Creekside Inn. Police converged on the scene and were directed to a fifth-floor balcony, where the suspect — identified as Martinez — was found hiding.
Martinez was taken into custody without further incident and booked on suspicion of residential burglary, as well as two outstanding misdemeanor warrants for battery and domestic violence, police said.
