The News Must Go On – And It Does! We Catch Up…

Prior to taking a little time off we put a picture of the above vehicle, shown on the left, then believed to be a Volkswagen Passat and used in a Lafayette armed robbery, out to the readership for a little armchair detective work and – once again – you guys came through like the champs you are.

Lafayette police investigators were attempting to pin down the make, model, year of the car in question and a lot of you gearheads responded, BUT none so specifically as Keven Fitzpatrick, who wrote:

“This is a 2011-2014 Volkswagen Jetta S, or SE without convenience package (notice the grey body mirrors w/ no integrated LED turn signal, and no moonroof). It is not the face-lifted 2015-2017 that the picture from Brian shows above. It’s a base model with either a 2.0L 4cyl (S), or a 2.5L 5-cylinder (if an SE). It will say SE 2.5L on the rear if that’s the model it is.”

Keven offered his interpretation via our Facebook page, which is perfectly fine, and others followed his lead there and on the site but we think he was the Jedi on this one and, apparently, the police thought so, too. They confirmed the year, make and model of the vehicle – a 2014 Volkswagen Jetta – and were able to track it to Fremont, where they developed two subjects who matched the descriptions of the robbery suspects.

Police were able to link one of the subjects to the crime and obtained an arrest warrant for that individual. They also obtained search warrants for an apartment in Fremont and the vehicle that had been used in the robbery (which was also in Fremont). Late last Thursday evening, Fremont Police Investigators located the suspect vehicle being driven by the robbery suspect. FPD Investigators were able to detain the suspect and secure the car.

Local officers, preceded by the Fremont Police SWAT Team, served a search warrant on the suspect’s apartment and searched the residence for evidence – recovering a Rolex watch taken during the June 30 robbery. The suspect was booked at the Martinez Detention Facility, where he remains in custody. LPD Investigators are now working to identify, locate, and arrest the second suspect.

We’re going to chalk that one up in the “win” column, put out a big thanks to Keven, and give a shout out to Lafayette PD for citing his contribution and supportive deductive reasoning by many other readers to bringing at least one alleged bad guy to justice.

Nice.

Also nice to see is the initial work on Chuck the Sink Hole we spotted on our way back into town, Chuck coughing up some of the local infrastructure he swallowed way back in… uh… my, March of last year. Whether we’ll be able to restore and re-use the light fixture and other items which Chuck disappeared that day remains to be seen but look for traffic at Center Street and Rheem Boulevard to be kerfluffled until October. Best case.

The delay in making Chuck go away has been tied to delays in securing matching funding, a situation exacerbated by an additional, later slip and slide event at Canyon Bridge, with Town officials scrambling to find a way to fix both problems in a perfect storm of infrastructure collapse. Perhaps that’s why we saw Mayor Teresa Onoda passing the donation tub at a recent summer concert – though she is staying positive and says she and her fellow council members are working on securing funding to fix both sites despite a lean fiscal outlook for the town.

Also of note as we return and catch up on things this week was a note we found waiting in our in box – penned by the Taco Bell worker injured in a violent encounter at the Moraga business July 2. The worker, a transwoman who said she knew her attacker and who was subjected to a flurry of punches from the Orinda teen when he jumped the counter and assaulted her during an apparently drug-fueled rage, said she is recovering from injuries inflicted during the attack. Her assailant has been charged with felony assault with intent to cause great bodily harm.

The worker told us she was once friends with her attacker, but that their relationship had soured as he allegedly turned to drugs. Exactly what triggered the attack remains unknown, though the teen apparently did flee the scene and drive south toward Livermore before he was eventually spotted, stopped, and arrested.

Nice to be back. Let’s see what the rest of the week has in store.