This Week From the Los Altos Police Log: Dec. 30-Jan. 5, 2012

All the excitement happened during the holiday weekend. By the end of the week, we were back to the same-old, same-old. By then, we guess, people were finally at work, or school, and just tending to business.

The New Year's Eve weekend, however, was the last chance to be a little crazy, for Los Altos. It was replete with teenagers caught stuffing beer in a backpack at Safeway on 160 First Street at 9:37 p.m., Dec. 30, a driving-under-the influence  arrest on the corner of Victor Way and Castro Street in Mountain View at 2:19 a.m. Saturday, as part of an intense regional-wide anti-DUI push over the holidays. There was also the requisite loud party going into New Year's morning. Police responded to a noise complaint at 1 a.m. about a home on the 900 block of Clinton Avenue, and reprimanded the loud ones.

And for some, it's hard to see the party stop. On Monday was the odd case of a customer drinking in the aisles of Safeway. Police said a man began opening bottles of wine and drinking them in the liquor department—at 8:17 a.m. Emloyees called the police, but the man left before officers arrived. 

After the holidays were indeed over, however, we were back to fender-benders and stranded motorists. On Tuesday, an officer assisted drivers who were involved in a small traffic accident at 2:43 p.m., near the intersection of Manor and Aura streets. The same day, there were two small, single-car accidents resulting in only property damage. The first was at 12:30 p.m. near Plaza South and San Antonio Road. The second was at 5:38 p.m. near Plaza North and Second Street; where a vehicle hit a parked vehicle in the lot. There was a minor injury accident at 6:18 p.m., at the intersection of Foothill Expressway and Vineyard Drive, also on Tuesday.

Residents were content to keep their eyes out for anything that looked amiss. Wednesday, alone, was a good day for calling police for suspicious people, vehicles or circumstances. At 9:31 a.m., Orange Avenue and Sherman Avenue; at 1:43 p.m., on the 400 block of Guadalupe Avenue, at 3:30 p.m., on the 300 block of Distel Circle, at 5:39 p.m., near Granger Avenue and Loyola Drive, and at 11:35 p.m., on 700 block of Berry Avenue. In the last case, the reports of subjects acting suspiciously, resulted in a reprimand, and the subjects were released. On Thursday, two more incidents were reported without enough substance for a report. The first was at 12:38 a.m.,was at West Portola Ave and Los Altos Ave, where police officers responded to a report of a suspicious person and determined it to be unfounded At 8:43 p.m., on Otis Way, officers responded to a suspicious circumstances call but wrote no report.

A coyote was spotted by a caller on at 8:36 a.m. Thursday in the vicinity of St. Joseph Avenue, Robinhood Lane and Nottingham Way, but was gone by the time officers arrived.

A high voltage line came down at 9:08 a.m. in front of the Comerica Bank at 275 3rd St. Police cordoned off area, and power was restored by PG&E about four hours later.

The most serious case was a domestic violence incident in progress on El Camino Real and Escuela Avenue that resulted in an arrest in Mountain View on Thursday at 9:38 p.m.

Sgt. Cameron Shearer said a Los Alto Police officer on patrol witnessed a young woman get punched in the eye after she pushed her 19-year-old male companion. The officer arrested the Mountain View man, who Shearer declined to identify because the 16-year-old female, also a Mountain View resident, would be able more readily identified, he said. The man was booked on a felony domestic violence charge at San Jose Jail.