A 52-year-old Berkeley woman who was walking alone near the Gourmet Ghetto was attacked and robbed Sunday in broad daylight.
The woman was walking at 12:35 p.m. near Henry and Vine streets when a man came up to her, punched and kicked her, and pulled her black backpack away from her, said Berkeley Police Lt. Kevin Schofield, a department spokesman.
The woman sustained minor injuries during the robbery.
The man got into the passenger seat of a dark-colored Chevy and fled south on Henry. He was described as black, 30 years old, 5 foot 10 and 180 pounds, and was wearing a white shirt and dark pants.
Local residents warned each other and discussed the incident on the Nextdoor neighborhood social network.
Wrote one woman, “Police were there before I knew about the incident. The suspects and car haven’t been further identified. Be careful out there, y’all.”
There have been more than 145 robberies reported to the Berkeley Police Department this year. (The data that are readily available only go back six months, to Jan. 13.) Another eight incidents have been reported to the University of California Police Department.
Last year, during the first six months of the year, 165 robberies were reported to BPD, which was a steep increase from the prior year.
The Gourmet Ghetto neighborhood, where many popular Berkeley eateries and shops are located, is generally safe. Only one other robbery, at Henry and Rose, about one block north of Sunday’s attack, has been reported in the area this year. That incident took place March 19, according to CrimeMapping.
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