A 27-year-old man allegedly broke a living room window trying to get into a protected party's Alameda residence Tuesday morning, then stole an idling, unoccupied police SUV and drove it to Oakland, where he was eventually found hiding in a basement. Officers, backed up by an Alameda County Sheriff's Office canine team, pulled him out after he initially refused to come outside.
According to The Mercury News, Alameda police were called to a residence in the 300 block of Stardust Place at 9:52 a.m. after a protected party reported that the suspect had violated a domestic-violence restraining order. Police say the man had been sought for the restraining-order violation and, per police, attempted to enter the protected party's residence by breaking a living room window.
Patrol SUV Vanishes Mid-Response
While officers were on scene, the suspect allegedly stole a running, unoccupied marked patrol SUV and drove it to Oakland, the outlet's report notes. The vehicle turned up abandoned near 10th Avenue and East 11th Street in East Oakland, with police later confirming that all items inside the SUV were accounted for and that the vehicle itself was not damaged.
Alameda officers, working with Oakland police, found the suspect while searching the neighborhood, and he fled on foot. Later, as officers established a perimeter, he ran to the patrol SUV. Officers traced him to the basement of a residence in the 1000 block of International Boulevard, where he initially refused to come outside. He was arrested at 11:45 a.m.
K9 Assist Leads to Hospital Trip
The Alameda County Sheriff's Office canine team assisted with the suspect's apprehension, and he was later treated at a local hospital for injuries sustained during the arrest, including a dog bite, authorities said. He had no confirmed address, according to the same account, and was to be booked at Santa Rita Jail on suspicion of unlawful taking of an emergency vehicle, vandalism, violating a court order, and resisting, delaying or obstructing a peace officer.
The episode is an outlier against a broader statewide trend: vehicle theft has been falling across California, with the state logging 133,372 stolen vehicles in 2025 — roughly 25 percent fewer than the 176,230 taken the year before, marking a second straight year of decline, per the same Mercury News analysis. Alameda County itself recorded 12,277 vehicle thefts in 2025, down 36.1 percent from 2024, while Alameda Post reported that local auto theft reports had stabilized to an average of 37.8 per month over the six months ending in June 2025.
Not the First Stolen Patrol Car This Year
Brazen patrol-vehicle thefts have popped up elsewhere in California this year. In July, CHP officers arrested a man driving a stolen Los Angeles Police Department cruiser on Interstate 5 in San Juan Capistrano after the marked black-and-white Crown Victoria — reportedly taken from a special event near 38th and Figueroa streets — was spotted with its rear amber lights flashing near Ortega Highway, according to NBC Los Angeles.
A similar case played out in the Sacramento region, where a suspect being detained over reported vandalism instead stole a Sacramento police patrol vehicle and led officers on a chase down Highway 99 before California Highway Patrol officers took him into custody near Lodi, per CBS Sacramento. In Alameda's case, the suspect never made it far past Oakland before the K9 team closed in.
