Police Investigate Attempted Carjacking

Published on January 26, 2022

Palo Alto, CA – Police are investigating an attempted carjacking that occurred yesterday afternoon, where the unknown suspect verbally demanded the victim’s car that was occupied by the victim and two young children.  The victim drove away, and the suspect is at large.

On Tuesday, January 25, 2022, at about 5:25 p.m., our 24-hour dispatch center received a call reporting a carjacking attempt that had occurred about an hour earlier outside the Stanford Arboretum Children’s Center at 215 Quarry Road.  The caller, the mother of two pre-school aged children, reported that the victims were her caregiver and two children.

The investigation revealed that about 4:30 p.m., the caregiver (a woman in her fifties) went to pick up the two children from the cul-de-sac outside the facility.  As she began to drive away, an unknown man suddenly jumped in front of her car and approached her driver’s side window.  The man demanded that she give him the car with the children in it.  The victim was scared, and immediately drove away.  The victim returned the children to their home and told their mother about what happened, and the mother in turn notified police.

The victim described the suspect as a tall Black male with a thin build, between 25 and 30 years of age.  He was wearing a black shirt, black pants, and shoes the victim described as “old.”  There are no surveillance images of the suspect at this time.

Police are actively investigating this incident.  There have been no similar crimes reported in Palo Alto recently.

Anyone with information about this incident is asked to call our 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.