Pleasanton police are investigating after two teens robbed a patron of the Stoneridge Shopping Center and sprayed the victim with pepper spray earlier this month.
The two male teens fled the mall on June 3 in a black, four-door sedan described as an “older model black Chevy Impala or Malibu with paper plates.” The vehicle’s rear passenger-side window was broken and covered with packing tape, police stated.
The victim’s cellphone later was tracked to Oakland through a phone locator service, but the described car had not been located as of Wednesday, police stated.
The culprits were described as black male teens with slender builds. Anyone with information on the case can call Pleasanton police at 931-5100.
In other police news
* Pleasanton police arrested the driver of an allegedly stolen truck last week after the driver led officers on a high-speed chase before crashing into two other cars.
Officers arrested Christopher Mero, 35, after he crashed a maroon truck into two other cars while driving the wrong way on Valley Avenue near the intersection of Crestline Road around 3 p.m. June 9. No one was hurt in the crash, despite one nearly head-on collision.
Police closed Valley Avenue at the east and west sections of Northway Road for about an hour and a half that afternoon.
The chase started after officers received an alert to be on the lookout for a stolen vehicle in the Pleasanton area. It was reported the truck was stolen by a man wanted for assault with a deadly weapon and for stealing the vehicle.
Police spotted the vehicle at 2:45 p.m., and the driver — later identified as Mero — sped off when officers tried to pull him over. The chase lasted several minutes, during which the truck drove in the wrong direction, ran through red lights and ignored stop signs.
Mero, a transient from the Hayward area, was arrested without further incident, police stated.
* Pleasanton resident Muzaffar Hussain pleaded guilty in federal court last week for failing to pay employment taxes while working as chief financial officer of Crossroads Home Health Care, Inc., according to prosecutors.
Hussain, 68, entered the guilty plea last Friday, stating that he knew he was in charge of accounting for taxes that should be removed from employees’ salaries for social security, income tax and other taxes but did not fulfill that requirement, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Northern District of California.
A grand jury indicted Hussain last July on 13 counts of making or subscribing a false tax return, 17 counts of willful failure to account and for pay over taxes and one count of structuring transactions to evade reporting requirements.
“Nevertheless, for each pay period between July 1, 2004, and Feb. 27, 2008, Hussain transferred funds in an amount equal to, or close to, the amount of employment taxes from the Bank of America account to other bank accounts,” the news release stated. “Hussain thereafter used the monies, including the trust fund taxes, to fund other business and personal interests.”
Hussain is currently released on bond, according to federal prosecutors. His next court appearance will be in January. The maximum sentence he could face is five years in prison and $250,000 in penalties.
