Investigators believe an armed robbery of a parent returning home on Monday morning was committed by the same suspects from a robbery earlier this month in the same San Leandro neighborhood, police said Wednesday.
Both robberies happened in the Washington Manor neighborhood as parents were returning from dropping off their teenage children at school, police said.
On Monday, the victim was coming back to his home in the 1400 block of Burkhart Avenue from Arroyo High School at about 8 a.m. when three masked men approached him.
"A guy with a gun, a mask and in black and grey came up to him with a gun to his head and said 'Don't do anything foolish,'" said Pia Castillo, who along with her sister and mother witnessed the robbery. "My dad grabbed the guy's wrist and tried to take the gun from him, but he saw two or three people running up in masks and guns too."
One of the suspects then forced Castillo's father into his backyard, where they told him to knock on his backdoor to get his wife's attention. But when she saw what was happening, she called police and the three robbers took the man's wallet and ran. Police searched the area but couldn't find the suspects.
Castillo is still shocked and shaken by what happened to her father.
"My sisters are scared," she said. "Everyone's scared."
Local
A similar robbery happened a few blocks away on Oct. 8.
In that case, four men with guns approached a man who had just dropped his child off and come home to the 15600 block of Hebron Court at about 8:30 a.m., police said.
The four suspects went into the man's home and robbed him and his wife of cash, jewelry and other items they could easily conceal, police said.
They fled the area in a dark Nissan Rogue that was caught on video by a neighbor's surveillance camera. The car had California license plates but witnesses didn't have time to take down the number.
Police are asking anyone who might have recorded the suspects in Monday's robbery to contact them, particularly anyone with surveillance cameras on Burkhart Avenue and Farnsworth Street that captured any suspicious activity between 7:30 and 8:30 a.m.
Anyone who saw anything suspicious on Monday has been asked to contact police as well.
San Leandro police criminal investigators can be reached at 510-577-3230 or via a tip line at 510-577-3278.
