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Pleasanton police released suspect photographs Thursday as part of their ongoing investigation into armed robberies of neighboring businesses on Hopyard Road late last month.
The situation began just after 9:45 p.m. July 30 when an unidentified man walked into the Shell gas station convenience store at the corner of Hopyard Road and West Las Positas Boulevard, wielding a knife in his left hand and demanding money, according to police.
After receiving an undisclosed amount of cash, the robber immediately went next door to the 7-Eleven store and stole money from there, according to police.
The man then ran from the area traveling south on Hopyard Road, and he has eluded local police ever since, according to investigators.
The robber is described as a white man of unknown age, last seen wearing a black-hooded sweatshirt, black shorts, white ankle-high socks, light-colored shoes, colored sunglasses and a gray ball cap, according to police. He was reported to be between 5-foot-11 and 6-foot-1, weighing 240-260 pounds and appearing to have dark facial hair, possibly a beard or goatee.
As part of their investigation, police on Thursday released three photographs of the culprit in a call for public help in identifying him.
Anyone with information on the case or the robber can call the Pleasanton Police Department at 931-5100 — ask for Detective Shuffield and reference case No. 17-28385.
The two head-on images in the supplied pictures do not look at all like a “White man”, especially the closeup one. Likely a man, but facial characteristics and face color plus hand color don’t look like any white man I have ever seen. Probably not Hispanic either. The “walking” image does have white hands, but it is not as clear, and again the face does not look white.
Security camera systems are quite cheap anymore, you can get a 10 camera system with weeks of video recovery for under $1k. Relatively cheap for a business of this kind, and probably a “must have” for insurance purposes. Yet, we rarely see a “face-level” picture closer to the miscreant where facial features give us more information. Even bank cameras usually give us a top angle shot of a hat with the clarity associated with pictures of UFOs. Why not hide a camera in the candy bars or at eye level behind the register? Give it a try.
Notice to all Pleasanton people. People from Oakland and the surrounding area have heard about the easy pickings in Pleasanton. It’s rich, it has a lot of expensive shiny things to steal, and the people are generally afraid of low-income people, regardless what they say about diversity. The benefit of the doubt goes to the thief, and it’s fun to steal from rich people.
As a long-time law enforcement officer, now retired, I know for a fact that as things progress toward more civil unrest, the over-the-hill gangs will become more confident in choosing Pleasanton as their rich town of choice for crime.