Stealing iPod from Boy Not Like Stealing Candy

Six arrested for stealing Palo Alto boy's iPod

Palo Alto police arrested six people Friday night after one of them allegedly robbed a boy of his iPod.

The boy called 911 around 8:20 p.m. to report that he was skateboarding in the 200 block of Everett Avenue when a man knocked him off the skateboard from behind, police said.

The suspect then grabbed the victim's iPod from his pocket and fled on foot to a red van, police said. An officer spotted the van shortly after the robbery and pulled it over in the 100 block of Palo Alto Avenue, police said.

Six males inside were arrested, and the victim was able to identify one as the person who had knocked him over, according to police.

Police arrested East Palo Alto residents Fataituulilo Vailala, 20, and Malakai Mataere, 18; Menlo Park resident Vaughn Smith, 18; and three juvenile suspects from East Palo Alto, Newark and Oakland. Vailala, Mataere and Smith were booked into Santa Clara County Jail on robbery and conspiracy to commit robbery charges, police said.

One of the juvenile suspects was booked into Juvenile Hall, and the other two were cited and released to their parents.

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