Palo Alto Police Seek Man Who Robbed Baskin Robbins At Gunpoint

PALO ALTO, CA — A man robbed a Baskin Robbins ice cream store in Palo Alto at gunpoint on Monday after ordering food, according to police.

An image of the suspect provided by the Palo Alto Police Department appears to match that of a suspect who committed a similar robbery at a Subway in Redwood City the same evening.

The Palo Alto incident occurred around 7 p.m. at the Baskin Robbins location at 2615 Middlefield Road. According to a news release, the man ordered food before pointing a black, semi-automatic handgun at a female employee and ordering her to open the cash register.

Surveillance footage showed that the suspect also took money from the tip jar, according to a news release. He left the store in a four-door sedan, driving southbound on Middlefield Road.

Shortly afterwards, around 7:53 p.m., a man robbed a Subway in Redwood City in a similar manner, ordering a sandwich and then brandishing a handgun at an employee before stealing between $200 and $400 in cash.

The Palo Alto Police Department described the suspect as a white adult male in his early 20s, with short black hair. He was wearing a black sweatshirt, a black hat with a San Francisco 49ers logo and a camouflage face covering. Authorities in Palo Alto said there “have been no other robberies committed by a similarly-described suspect in Palo Alto.”

However, an image of the suspect in the Redwood City incident appears to match that of the Palo Alto suspect. Neither department mentioned a link between the incidents in news releases on Tuesday.

Palo Alto police said that detectives are "working in close collaboration with regional partners to connect the suspect with any similar robberies in the region."

Anyone with information about this incident is asked to call Palo Alto's 24-hour dispatch center at 650-329-2413. Anonymous tips can be e-mailed to paloalto@tipnow.org or sent via text
message or voice mail to 650-383-8984.