Four people robbed the 7-Eleven convenience store in Palo Alto's Midtown neighborhood on Wednesday night, police said.
There were no injuries and the suspects are at large.
The robbery occurred at about 11:15 p.m. at the Colorado Avenue store, according to a police news release. The four people allegedly fled in a vehicle.
According to the police, the four individuals walked into the store and tried to enter the cashier's area. When the clerk attempted to block their entry, one of the people reportedly pushed him back towards the cash register and threatened to beat him up if he did not cooperate.
The clerk, a man in his 30s, opened the register and the four people stole cash and several cartons of cigarettes, police said. The robbers then ran out of the store and entered a vehicle parked on Colorado Avenue just east of the driveway into the Safeway parking lot.
The vehicle fled east on Colorado Avenue, according to the news release. The clerk was not physically injured, police said.
Police said the clerk described the four individuals as Black male juveniles, none more than 15 years old. All were reportedly wearing hooded sweatshirts and face masks, police said.
The vehicle was described as a dark older-model sedan that had a lowered suspension, according to the news release.
Police said the same store was also robbed in December 2020.
Anyone with information about this incident is asked to call the department's 24-hour dispatch center at 650-329-2413. Anonymous tips can be emailed to paloalto@tipnow.org or sent by text message or voicemail to 650-383-8984.
Comments
Registered user
another community
on Dec 22, 2022 at 11:04 am
Registered user
on Dec 22, 2022 at 11:04 am
No customers in the store? No in-store video? There has to be video, at least. Even back in the 80's, we had cameras on the door. And we had a foot-activated switch on the floor that immediately summoned the police. It's like this store owner is inviting robbery by not reporting having any surveillance in the store. An "older" model low-riding sedan? Might as well say, "clerk robbed while sleeping behind the counter with all the lights turned off".
If someone would publish images of the 4 perpetrators, that would go a long way toward catching them, rather than asking public for help identifying people nobody but the clerk saw.
Registered user
Midtown
on Dec 22, 2022 at 11:57 am
Registered user
on Dec 22, 2022 at 11:57 am
Good points, My Feelz, but this sounds rather like Victim Shaming to me. Shame on those 4 Vultures who would rather steal than work for their spending money!
Registered user
another community
on Dec 22, 2022 at 12:11 pm
Registered user
on Dec 22, 2022 at 12:11 pm
It may seem that way NanaDi but it was more observational and from personal experience. I worked at one of those stores in the 80's and did fall asleep once, but didn't get robbed. Camera would have captured images of anybody who came and went during my nap.
Registered user
Adobe-Meadow
on Dec 22, 2022 at 12:30 pm
Registered user
on Dec 22, 2022 at 12:30 pm
Every store should have a floor activated police alert system. That is a very strange location as it has a restaurant next to it as well as the Safeway store which has had it's problems. Two Banks across the street. If a location has had problems in the past and currently then the city should require all of the stores that are open at night to have some type of security system. The owners of the stores shoud have a system because this is their liability if something goes very wrong and people are hurt. The insurance companies should require that the stores have a system in place - it is not the insurenace companies job to clean up the mess.
Registered user
Old Palo Alto
on Dec 22, 2022 at 12:41 pm
Registered user
on Dec 22, 2022 at 12:41 pm
This is just sad and upsetting. My complex has cameras all throughout the halls, buildings bike lock up mail area and community quad. Our residents are being victimized with lots of mail and packages are getting stolen daily from many residents in side the mail box, mail area and from our front doors. Outer doors are locked with keyless entry, management is never present and when asked to surveil the video tapes management refuses. Often these cameras are broken or old or not updated with new software. Often the stores and multi-family properties don't have the labor or the "bandwidth" or the trained technical staff or any outside vendor to monitor -- there is no budget to fix and yet our society here is quickly being usurped by algorithms and the Internet. It's a low wage, one hour at a time. Or dare I totally conjecture these are, inside jobs? There are machines that mimicked (copied) my debit visa at Christmas 2020, using a counterfeit machine at a store in Redwood City after I purchased a single Mars Bar. Then my copied card was used to withdraw $800 cash as two different banks at two locations in Redwood City and San Carlos within an hour of making the mirrored card. The criminal(s) were kind enough to leave me $60 in my account. For what reason unknown to me. All the money was returned by my bank but it took 30 days to investigate and I still. Q: How many passwords did you have remember today or the number of times you had to log in to a website to get the most basic human need met to function until next episode of Alaska: Life Below Zero starts on our Internet stream, National Geo channel??
Registered user
another community
on Dec 22, 2022 at 3:18 pm
Registered user
on Dec 22, 2022 at 3:18 pm
Hiya @Native To The Bay and "Happy Holidays". Your comment reminded me of an article at this publication not too long ago, where it's being bandied about to let us taxpayers shoulder the expense of 20 or so surveillance cameras in exclusive neighborhoods. Likely manned by police 24/7, at the command of the residents who live in those exclusive neighborhoods. I would be willing to pay for that expense if it was fairly dispersed within the city limits to include, let's say, YOUR abode. Or any of the named retail locations where bank cards are regularly swiped. Because of experiences like yours, I don't even keep a bank card in my wallet. Cash is still accepted, tho COVID threatened to eliminte that too, by popularizing Crypto BS. Thankfully one of the creators of that funny money is in the Bahamas trying to get bail as we speak :) We are either going to use surveillance or not, but instances like the robbery last night do indeed sound like inside jobs because the utter failure of every kind of safety feature that should be implemented, wasn't. Funny (or not funny) this morning at 6:30 I was at the 711 on California ave, and can describe all of the customers and what they were buying and what kind of cars they were driving. Maybe I'm just more observant than the average person. So if anybody wants info about a robbery that didn't happen then and there, hit me up. 'Tis the season to be a teenager looking for a convenience store to rob! And then to read in the paper that you got away scot free due to failed or missing technology. I hope this year Santa brings me a house in a neighborhood with police cams on it, with taxpayer funded surveillance.
Registered user
Midtown
on Dec 22, 2022 at 6:02 pm
Registered user
on Dec 22, 2022 at 6:02 pm
It sounds like the contributors are assuming there were no cameras, and I seem to have missed that detail in the article. Don't Insurance companies require that this type of business use cameras? I wish that Mr. Sheyner would be a bit clearer on this point.
Registered user
Community Center
on Dec 23, 2022 at 11:17 am
Registered user
on Dec 23, 2022 at 11:17 am
Maybe 7-11s should consider closing during the late evening/early morning hours & have 6am-9pm operating hours.
Registered user
Midtown
on Dec 23, 2022 at 3:10 pm
Registered user
on Dec 23, 2022 at 3:10 pm
Midtown 7/11 has cameras showing all coming in and
parking lot. Not the best but have. All you have to do is have
covered heads, blocked out license plate, you cannot tell who it is.
There is a walk way from back area Safeway parking lot to the 7/11.
Does not take a genius to avoid detection. Just a terrible sad state of affairs.
Nobody mentions what happens to the clerks and their fear.
Told by employee, in last December robbery, clerk went into the hospital for 4 days!!!!!