A resident in the 300 block of Tharp Drive in Moraga got a shaky start to her morning Thursday when she observed a young man she did not know prowling in her backyard.
Moraga Police Lt. Jeff Price said the resident saw the person near her rear bedroom windows, then heard him try to open a back door. The resident fled the home through her garage door and contacted a postal worker on the street in front of her residence and police were summoned.
Moraga police, with supporting officers from Lafayette, Orinda, and a canine team from the Contra Costa County Sheriff's office, established a perimeter around the area and searched the location with the dog.
Officers found a rear bedroom screen had been removed though it did not appear that the suspect made entry into the residence. He was tracked to a rear embankment bounding the home, where it appeared he had jumped a rear fence. The track was then lost and the search called off.
Police described the prowler as a young black male adult, clean shaven with short hair, wearing black pants, a black top, and was carrying a backpack. The suspect arrived at the home on a blue bicycle, which was found abandoned in the driveway of the residence and recovered by investigators.
UPDATE: Shortly after 4 p.m. Moraga police received a call from security at Sanders Ranch about a young man at Camino Pablo and Dickinson seemingly wandering the area. The man was ultimately detained by police for investigation into what connection, if any, he may have had to the earlier incident on Tharp.
Harry, do you know how this ends? If so, please finish it because 11:02 is my bedtime.
I think you smell "paranoi[a] and racis[m]" overtones due to your PC filter/bias. If you are going to guess about the race of a violent criminal in Oakland, your best guess is that they are black-- despite being only about 1/3 of the overal population. Obviously not ALL the perps are black, and not all black people are criminals. But it is unclear to me what good comes from ignoring reality of the stark over representation. As for your personal experience of being the victim of armed robbery multiple times but never by a minority, your experience is either extraordinarily statistically improbable and non representative, or your shop was not in a heavily African American neighborhood.