Botched Peninsula Vacuum Cleaner Burglary Suspect Arrested

PALO ALTO, CA — A suspect was arrested earlier this month in connection with the botched vacuum cleaner burglary of an occupied home in which an elderly woman scared him off, Palo Alto police said.

Jaime Gonzalez Martinez, 23 of Santa Clara, was arrested on suspicion of residential burglary and two outstanding misdemeanor warrants for battery and domestic violence, police said.

Martinez was booked into Santa Clara County Main Jail, according to police.

The case not believed to be connected to the recent spate of “dinnertime burglaries” the city has experienced, police said.

Officers at around 1:30 p.m. Nov. 11 responded to a home in the 400 block of Fernando Avenue on the report of a residential burglary in progress, police said.

Officers determined the suspect had forced entry into the home by breaking a glass panel on a rear door, police said.

The victim, a woman in her 80, reported the suspect had rummaged through parts of her home and stolen a small portable vacuum cleaner.

Officers later found parts to that vacuum scattered outside the home.

The woman heard a banging noise on the first floor and saw a man walking up the stairs when she went to investigate, police said.

“She screamed, and the man ran away,” police said in a statement.

“The victim immediately called the police, who responded to the area to search for the suspect.”

The suspect led authorities on a brief pursuit after an officer spotted him on the east side of El Camino Real near Fernando Avenue at about 3:20 p.m., police said.

The suspect immediately ran across El Camino Real and into the Creekside Inn at 3400 El Camino Real.

The suspect was eventually arrested on the property’s fifth-floor balcony, and officers recovered a vacuum attachment that had been stolen from the victim’s home in his possession, police said.

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.