Safety

Oakland drivers, licenses just revoked, hit sting

By CLARE MAJOR Nov. 17–A bad day got worse this afternoon for drivers who decided to get back behind the wheel after their driver’s licenses were suspended this afternoon at the Alameda County Superior Court:  the Oakland Police Department had a sting waiting for them.  After those on the docket surrendered their licenses to the court, undercover officers in the courtroom relayed their descriptions to motorcycle officers outside.  Those officers watched them to see if they called for a ride,…

Cyclist mugged, threatened on Locksley

by MAGGIE FAZELI FARD Nov. 21–A bicyclist was mugged and threatened four doors from her Locksley Avenue home last week in an incident that police call “a random act,” but that worried neighbors and may have been the second attack on a local cyclist in recent weeks. 

OPD says residents helped nab burglary suspects

by SAMSON REINY Nov. 14–In a packed auditorium at Montera Middle School last night, Oakland Police Cpt. Anthony Toribio commended both the Montclair neighborhood and Oakland officers for capturing two suspects believed to have been involved in a number of forced-entry burglaries in the Oakland Hills throughout September and October. Charles Langley and Kevin Simmons are charged with multiple felonies, and as more forensic evidence becomes available, more charges will likely be added. On Oct. 28, officers apprehended the duo…

Door-breakdown burglaries subject of meeting tonight

by ISABEL ESTERMAN Nov. 13–Nanci, 50, a teacher living in Montclair, hardly ever uses her front door.  She and her family just go in through the carport.  But one bright Tuesday  afternoon in September, a burglar came right through it.  “They just broke the door,” says Nanci, who asked her last name be withheld because of the recent burglary.  The deadbolt was locked, she and her husband say, but their hollow-core door barely slowed the burglar down.  It gave way…

Door-kicking burglary suspects nabbed after hills pursuit

By ISABEL ESTERMAN OCT. 28 — A police chase through the Oakland hills ended yesterday with the arrest of two men police say may be connected to burglaries throughout the Bay Area–including a rash of recent Montclair break-ins in which homes’ front doors were kicked hard enough to force them open. Oakland police said officers apprehended Chas Langley, 24, of Marin City and Kevin Simmons of Denver, Colo.  Monday afternoon after the men tried – and failed – to ram their car…

Bay Area child sex trafficking stings lead nationwide effort

  By ISABEL ESTERMAN OCT. 28 –Thirteen juveniles have been taken into custody in the Bay Area and 123 adults have been arrested as part of Operation Cross Country II, a nationwide effort to combat the sex trafficking of children, law enforcement officials announced this morning. Bay Area operations are responsible for almost 25 percent the juveniles apprehended, and a fifth of nearly 650 arrests nationwide, said FBI spokesman  Joe Schadler. “A bulk of the national work was done in…