Palo Alto Robbery Suspect Accused Of Elder Abuse

PALO ALTO, CA — Santa Cruz man was arrested Monday on suspicion of robbery and elder abuse in connection with an incident at a Palo Alto mall, police said.

Bryan Michael Flint, 49, was booked into Santa Clara County Jail, the Palo Alto Police Department said.

Flint had six outstanding arrests out of Santa Cruz County for multiple violations including identity theft, possession of stolen property and vandalism, according to police.

He is accused of attempting to rob an elderly man of his cell phone, police said.

The attempted robbery occurred after Flint physically resisted a loss prevention employee at the mall who suspected Flint was shoplifting and tried to stop him, police said.

No injuries were reported.

Officers at about 3:20 p.m. Monday responding to report of a shoplift in progress at Macy’s at Stanford Shopping Center at 180 El Camino Real detained the suspect at the mall without incident, police said.

Flint attempted to leave the store with merchandise valued at $350, police said.

“When he left without paying, they went to stop him and place him under private person’s arrest,” police said.

“The suspect physically resisted, shoving two loss prevention officers (one man and one woman, both in their twenties) away from him as he left.”

The loss prevention employees followed Flint through the mall at a safe distance, reporting his location to the public safety dispatcher and saw the suspect attempt to snatch a cell phone from the hand of a man in his 80s who was sitting on a bench, police said.

“The man was able to retain possession of his phone and shoved the suspect’s hand away,” police said.

Loss prevention personnel and police recovered the stolen property (clothing items and perfume) from the suspect’s possession.

Anyone with information about this case is asked to call the PAPD’s 24-hour dispatch center at (650) 329-2413. Anonymous tips can be e-mailed to paloalto@tipnow.org or sent via text message or voice mail to (650) 383-8984.