Five auto burglary suspects were arrested in Palo Alto early Monday thanks to a 911 call by a witness who saw them banging on car windows, police said.
The arrests came after the witness called the Palo Alto police 24-hour dispatch center at 3:39 a.m. to report possible auto burglaries in progress in the area of Amarillo Avenue and West Bayshore Road.
A responding officer saw a vehicle traveling south on Tanland Drive at Amarillo Avenue matching the suspect description and pulled it over, police said.
Inside the vehicle, officers found gloves, burglary tools, and several possibly stolen items. Investigators searched the area and found eight vehicles with smashed windows, then contacted the victims and returned stolen property found inside the suspects' vehicle.
David Matthew Foster, 18, of Newark, Salvador Rodriguez, 19, of East Palo Alto, and David Taufur, 18, of East Palo Alto, were booked into jail on suspicion of auto burglary, conspiracy, vandalism and possession of burglary tools.
The two other suspects in the car, two 17-year-old boys from Redwood City, were cited and released to their parents, according to police.
Detectives are investigating whether the suspects committed other auto burglaries in Palo Alto. Anyone with information about the case is asked to call the 24-hour dispatch center at (650) 329-2413, email paloalto@tipnow.org, or to send a tip via text message or voicemail to (650) 383-8984.
