An 80-year-old woman and her 45-year-old niece are recovering after they were both mugged while walking home in Berkeley Wednesday night.
The incident happened at around 7:30 p.m. Wednesday in Berkeley’s Elmwood neighborhood.
According to police, the women were walking back after dinner to the older woman’s home nearby. Police say when they got to Alcatraz Avenue, two suspects came from behind, knocked both to the ground and snatched their purses.
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The suspects ran to a waiting car and both women suffered bumps and bruises.
The news of incident made it to the NextDoor app because of Matthew Yergovich, a neighbor of one of the victims.
“To be mugged and then to have the perpetrators come to her home use her keys and steal her car is just unbelievable,” he said. “I think that’s there are no repressions for these criminals, that there’s a free for all out there and they’ll stop at nothing."
Just before midnight Wednesday, the same group of suspect turned up at one of the victim’s homes in a dark colored sedan. Police said they use the woman’s keys to get into her Honda Accord and stole it.
According to public data by the Berkeley Police Department, year to date, stolen vehicles are up 62% from last year and robberies are up 30% compared to last year.
Police said that there have been no arrests in both cases.
