A Sunnyvale man says the Waymo that took him to the airport neglected to open the trunk for him to retrieve his luggage before driving off. The company wants him to pay for shipping, or take two complimentary Waymo rides to the depot in SF to retrieve it.

Di Jin said his first-ever Waymo ride to the San Jose Mineta Airport went pretty well Monday, until the car drove away with his luggage, as NBC Bay Area reports. Jin said when he exited the vehicle, he tried to open the trunk, but nothing happened when he pushed the button. Then the car drove off.

Something similar allegedly happened to a Waymo rider in San Francisco last April, leading to some expensive tennis gear going missing.

According to Waymo’s website, the trunk is supposed to open automatically when the passenger exits the vehicle. It can also reportedly be opened by pressing the trunk release button on the car or selecting "open trunk" in the app, which Jin says did not work in his case.

He said he called Waymo’s customer service right away, and he was told the vehicle could not be turned back around, as it was on its way back to the depot in San Francisco. Jin told NBC Bay Area he continued on to San Diego without any of the essentials he needed for his trip, including work and personal items.

Once his luggage made it back to the depot, the company contacted Jin, citing its policy that it’s not responsible for lost items. Waymo said he could either pay for shipping or take two complementary rides to pick it up, which would take around two hours round trip from Sunnyvale. Both options were out of the question for Jin.

"It doesn’t make any sense at all, because it's not my mistake," he said. "I already told them very clearly it's not lost and found, right?" he said.

As SFist reported last fall, Waymo began offering service to San Jose airport in September.

Previously: Be Wary of Putting Stuff In the Trunk of a Waymo — Sometimes They Drive Off

Image: Daniel Ramirez/Wikimedia

An apparent domestic violence homicide in Sunnyvale in January has been politicized by Trump's Department of Homeland Security, as the agency is seizing on the fact that the suspects arrested were both Honduran nationals who had previously been deported.

The case of the January 7 murder of 24-year-old Kembery Chirinos-Flores has taken on new political overtones this week after the Department of Homeland Security has decided to make an example of the case.

After nearly a year in which federal agents have been rounding up and deporting non-violent immigrants who were undocumented, many of whom were seeking a legal path to residency or citizenship, DHS Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis called out the Sunnyvale case in a press release, on account of the deportation history of the two suspects arrested in early March.

"These illegal aliens should have never been able to commit these horrific killings and must NEVER be released from jail into American communities," Bis says in a statement. "Instead of cooperating with ICE, Santa Clara sanctuary politicians REFUSED to honor ICE’s arrest detainer and will not notify ICE when these murderers are released from jail. This insanity of refusing to turn cold-blooded killers over to ICE must end."

It is inaccurate to say that law enforcement in sanctuary cities do not cooperate with ICE in the case of violent criminals, but that is what is being asserted here.

DHS contends that Gerzon Chirinos-Munguia, who fathered a child with Chirinos Flores, should have been handed over to ICE after two arrests for domestic battery in April 2018 and September 2019. Chirinos-Munguia was reportedly caught entering the country illegally in May 2015 and later deported, only to reenter the country once again. And ICE reportedly issued an arrest detainer for him after the domestic battery arrests, which DHS now says was not honored by Santa Clara County law enforcement — though the circumstances and reasons for this remain unknown.

Chirinos-Munguia is accused of killing Chrinos-Flores at the Plaza Del Rey mobile home park on Vienna Drive in Sunnyvale, where he was reportedly living. She was found fatally shot in her car, apparently after driving there from Mountain View.

Chirinos-Munguia was arrested two months later along with Alfonso Inestroza, aka Franquin Inestroza-Martinez, of Hollister. Inestroza-Martinez, also a Honduran national, was deported twice between 2013 and 2018, and he is accused in the March 2025 murder of 55-year-old Esteban Vicente Sacalxot in Trenton, New Jersey. At the time of his arrest last month, he was wanted on an outstanding warrant in New Jersey.

His suspected role in the killing of Chirinos Flores is not clear.

The DHS press release lumps Inestroza-Martinez with Chirinos-Munguia, saying, "Santa Clara County sanctuary politicians refused to honor ICE detainers on two criminal illegal aliens arrested for the murder of a 24-year-old single mother in California." However, there is no mention of any detainer request for Inestroza-Martinez, and it does not appear he was arrested for any previous crime before being linked to the New Jersey homicide.

Get ready for Trump to use this case an example of Radical Left politicians gone wild in an upcoming speech, and to further distort the details of the suspects histories.

Previously: Two Men Arrested, Including Ex-Boyfriend, In Sunnyvale Killing of Young Mother

Arrests have now been made in the January 7 killing of 24-year-old Kembery Chirinos-Flores in Sunnyvale, and one of the suspects is the father of the woman's five-year-old son.

The shooting happened on the night of January 7 at the Plaza Del Rey mobile home park on Vienna Drive in Sunnyvale, and Chirinos-Flores was found fatally shot in her car. This did not appear to be her place of residence, as authorities said she was a resident of Mountain View.

No arrests were made in the case for two months, but the Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety provided an update Monday, announcing the arrests of two men suspected in Chirinos-Flores's murder.

One of the arrested men is Gerzon Chirinos of Sunnyvale, also known as Gerzon Chirinos-Munguia, who is reportedly the father of Chirinos-Flores's five-year-old son. As the Sunnyvale DPS explains, Chirinos had a previous domestic violence arrest on his record, involving another partner, from 2018.

He was arrested along with Alfonso Inestroza, aka Franquin Inestroza-Martinez, of Hollister. No explanation was given about Inestroza's suspected involvement in the killing.

Both men were booked on murder charges, and Inestroza reportedly had a warrant out for his arrest in New Jersey, on an unrelated murder case.

"Kembery was in the prime of her life. She was working two jobs to make ends meet, and she was a loving mother," said Sunnyvale DPS Chief Daniel Pistor at a press conference Monday. "This was a tragic, senseless act of violence that is fortunately extremely rare in our city."

Pistor added, "These arrests represent an important step toward justice for Kembery and her family. The Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety will never stop pursuing justice for victims of violent crime in our community, and we remain committed to holding offenders fully accountable."

Anyone with information about the case is asked to contact the Sunnyvale DPS at 408-733-7100.

Another recent South Bay murder-suicide also appeared to be a case of domestic violence. In that case, a man and a woman were found fatally shot on February 24 inside a car in the parking lot of the El Paseo de Saratoga shopping center near Saratoga and Campbell avenues in West San Jose. The victim was a 24-year-old woman who had recently ended a relationship with 43-year-old Edgard Altamirano, according to police, and Altamirano reportedly shot her before turning the gun on himself.

The victim reportedly worked at the European Wax Center at the shopping center. The woman's identity has so far been withheld from the media.

Top image: Photos via Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety

National:

• Iran is receiving intelligence from Russia and China on the location of US forces, including American warships, radar, and other communication systems, but there's no evidence the two countries are helping with military strikes. [NBC News]
• Military officials say it's likely US military forces were behind the strike that killed 150 students at an Iranian girls’ school Saturday, which is still under investigation. [Guardian]
• In the latest fallout from Trump’s takeover of the Kennedy Center, Jean Davidson, the center’s National Symphony Orchestra’s executive director, has resigned and will be taking on a new role as executive director and chief executive of the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Los Angeles. [LA Times]

Video of the Day:

Keep your eyes peeled for SFMTA's decked-out cable car celebrating Chinese New Year this weekend.

Image: Leanne Maxwell/SFist

When a pit bull, nicknamed “Google,” was abandoned outside Google’s Sunnyvale office the morning of Christmas Eve and animal control was closed, Bay Area Reddit users came together to give it food and water and find it shelter with the help of Sunnyvale police.

As KRON4 reports, Reddit user Substantial_Train_23 posted to the Bay Area Reddit community Wednesday that the dog, which appeared to be a pit bull, had been found tied to a light pole in the parking lot of Google’s office in Sunnyvale. Google’s security personnel weren’t able to get in touch with Sunnyvale Animal Control and called the Sunnyvale Police Department instead.

Substantial_Train_23 said they pulled over to give the dog some food, which it ate without hesitation despite being skittish, and it appeared to have scars all over its face, per KRON4. “The dog looked soooo sad and was very skinny!” they added. “They seemed to be scared of me a little bit cuz they backed away when I approached standing up. The poor thing had a lot of scars on its face.”

Soon after, Cassandra Lopez, who’s the general manager of CityDog! Club, a dog boarding facility in Mountain View, and known as Goatfeetandweed on Reddit, chimed in, saying she had arrived on the scene and was helping Sunnyvale police find somewhere safe and warm for “Google” to stay. Per KRON4, Lopez said the scars indicate the dog came from a fighting background.

“Big, huge, massive shout out to you Reddit! Thank you for getting me to the right place at the right time,” said Lopez, per KRON4. “Sending good vibes to you all, happy holidays! From all of us at Citydog! Club in Mountain View.”

“Google” is now at Sunnyvale Animal Control and will be transferred to a local shelter for adoption.

Substantial_Train_23/Reddit

• The East Bay city of San Ramon was the center of at least seven small earthquakes Sunday morning, starting with two back-to-back 3.8 and 3.7 magnitude earthquakes at 9:38 am, followed by two 3.0 and 2.9 quakes. [NBC Bay Area]

• The Trump administration is demanding that the states that began administering SNAP payments Friday give the money back after Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson paused an earlier ruling by a federal judge calling for the immediate disbursement of payments. [The Associated Press]
• Thirteen infants in ten states have been hospitalized with botulism linked to baby formula sold under the Whole Nutrition Infant Formula brand from two lots: 206VABP/251261P2 and 206VABP/251131P2; no deaths have been reported. [Bay Area News Group]
• The folks at Marine Mammal Center recently reunited a sea otter pup named Caterpillar with her mom after the pup became stranded on the beach at Morro Bay, as seen in this heartwarming video. [Marine Mammal Center]

Image: Leanne Maxwell/SFist

• The Golden State Valkyries beat the Washington Mystics in a stellar 99-62 game Saturday night. Less than 24 hours later, the team is hosting Indiana Fever in a whirlwind series of back-to-back games. [SF Standard]
• A large group of cold-water swimmers came together at Aquatic Cove Saturday to memorialize fellow Dolphin Club member Nikolas Tomasevic, who died in the water last weekend. [Chronicle]

• San Francisco’s maze-like housing system is leaving disabled families in limbo, sometimes forcing them to turn hospital rooms into makeshift homes. [El Tecolote]
• Sunnyvale was recognized for its proactive housing and zoning programs by Governor Gavin Newsom and the Department of Housing and Community Development, receiving the seventh highest score out of 65 jurisdictions and the highest in Santa Clara County. [Bay Area News Group]
• Here’s a rundown of the current situation at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as its director has been pushed out, senior staff departed, and Health and Human Services is moving in. [KQED]

Image: Leanne Maxwell/SFist

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• Over 300 teens gathered at the Streets of Brentwood mall Friday afternoon in an event organized on social media, leading to chaos with fights and property damage. Five juveniles were arrested and cited, businesses closed early for safety, and multiple law enforcement agencies responded to disperse the crowd. [Bay Area News Group]
• A woman who died after she was found with a gunshot wound in Vallejo on July 5 may have been the victim of a road rage incident. Police are asking for witnesses or surveillance from eastbound I-80 near Tennessee Street and Redwood Parkway between 1:25 and 1:35 a.m. [KPIX]
• Bay Area cities including Fremont, Newark, and Union City have set up temporary trash drop-off sites as the Teamsters strike against Republic Services continues to disrupt regular garbage pickup. With no clear end in sight, the company is bringing in out-of-town workers — “scabs” — to resume limited collection. [Bay Area News Group]
• A paraglider lost control and crash-landed at Mussel Rock Park in Daly City on Saturday, prompting a rope rescue and hospitalization, officials said. [KGO]

• A 25-year-old Sunnyvale man was arrested for allegedly making sexually suggestive gestures toward young children at Eagle Park in Mountain View. [KRON4]
• A man was killed and a woman seriously injured when a speeding car went airborne and rolled off Highway 12 near American Canyon Friday night; CHP says alcohol may have been a factor. [KRON4]
• Around 500 fans turned up to Westfield Valley Fair in Santa Clara Saturday for the big Hello Kitty Cafe opening, extending from one end of the mall to the other — with more events happening on Sunday. [San Jose Spotlight]

Image: Leanne Maxwell/SFist

Image: Leanne Maxwell/SFist

Valley Goat, the much-anticipated Bay Area debut restaurant from multi-hyphenate chef and food-world celebrity Stephanie Izard, will open its doors in Sunnyvale on March 31.

Izard has been a known quantity in the restaurant world and on Food Network and Bravo for 17 years now, having become the first female chef to win Top Chef's fourth season in 2008. Her first Chicago restaurant, Scylla, had opened four years earlier, and she's gone on to open six restaurants with the Boka Restaurant Group, including her original Girl & the Goat in Chicago, a second Girl & the Goat in Los Angeles — where she now lives — and two locations of her Peruvian restaurant Cabra, in Chicago and LA.

(The name Izard comes from a mountaingoat in the French Pyranees, hence the inspiration for the names.)

Valley Goat, as we first learned last fall, is opening in the new Treehouse Hotel in Sunnyvale, which has just recently opened on the former Sheraton property on North Mathilda Avenue. The restaurant is big, with 250 seats, and the kitchen is anchored by a Josper grill — an enclosed grill that cooks at high temperatures and partially acts as a smoker.

New dishes that don't appear on other Goat restaurant menus include a dish of wood-fired eggplant with tahini, carrot hummus and tzatziki; and some pork belly noodles with wood-fired pineapple.

You can see the full food and beverage menu here, which showcases Izard's all-over-the-map, global cuisine, and penchant for bold flavor combinations.

Goat makes its way onto this menu only in some goat empanadas, as a starter. Other smaller plates include Izard's signature grilled oysters with sausage butter, and her chickpea fritters with goat yogurt and herb chutney.

There are only three dishes listed as "Bigger Plates," and those are a whole, wood-fired branzino with Thai sweet and sour sauce and pickled vegetables; a "sticky pork shank" with pickled cucumber salad; and the aforementioned wood-fired eggplant.

Cocktails include a Goat Gibson, featuring fish-sauce brine and Monkey 47 gin; and a mezcal mule featuring passionfruit and Cynar, called the End of the Valley. An Old Fashioned variant called the Goat Fashion, features bourbon, banana liqueur, and cacao bitters.

The reservation books are now open for Valley Goat, which will serve lunch and dinner starting Monday, March 31 — see the lunch menu here, under the Lunch tab. And the Sunnyvale Treehouse Hotel also features a Backyard Cafe, and a beer garden as well.

Izard, who after Top Chef also achieved the title of Iron Chef on Iron Chef Gauntlet and Iron Chef America, is a fixture these days on the Food Network, appearing as both a competitor and a judge on shows like Guy's Grocery Games, Beat Bobby Flay, and Tournament of Champions — where, this season, she was unfortunately knocked out in the first round by chef Michael Reed. In 2013, she also became a James Beard Award winner, taking home the award for Best Chef: Great Lakes.

Previously: Celebrity Chef Stephanie Izard Opening New South Bay Restaurant, Valley Goat

Top image: Photo by Nick Podraza for Boka Restaurant Group

Sunnyvale police officers and Santa Clara County sheriff’s deputies raided a commercial building Thursday on suspicion it was a brothel, and they found seven human trafficking victims, six alleged sex buyers, and a $27,000 pile of cash.

An ongoing investigation led Sunnyvale Police and the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office to suspect there was a “large-scale” brothel operating at an office park in Sunnyvale. So they raided the place Thursday, and KRON4 reports they found human trafficking victims, alleged sex buyers, a suspected madam, and nearly $30,000 cash.

KPIX adds that the “brothel was located in a building on Reamwood Avenue, the location of a business park north of Tasman Drive.” In other words, it was working out of the very nondescript office park seen above.

Specifically, the raid found seven human trafficking victims, who’ve since been connected with social service resources. Meanwhile, they also turned up six alleged sex buyers and a woman suspected of running the operation, along with $27,000 in cash.

The raid was a joint operation between the Sheriff's Office's Santa Clara County Law Enforcement Investigating Human Trafficking Task Force, and the Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety. That department is a combined unit of Sunnyvale police and firefighting teams.

The Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety said in a statement that “This type of activity will not be tolerated in Sunnyvale and will be vigorously investigated.” They ask that anyone in the area who sees evidence of illegal activity call them at (408) 730-7180.

Related: Alleged Brothel Raided in South San Francisco Apartment Building, 65-Year-Old Woman Charged With Pimping [SFist]

Image: Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety via Facebook

Could it be the beginning of more Bay Area empire building for chef and restaurateur Stephanie Izard?

News arrived Tuesday that longtime Food Network fixture and 2008 Top Chef winner Stephanie Izard will be expanding her Girl & the Goat empire to the Bay Area next year for the first time. As the Chronicle reports, Izard has signed on to open Valley Goat in Silicon Valley, at the new Treehouse Hotel in Sunnyvale.

The restaurant will be similar in spirit to Girl & the Goat, which takes its inspirations from across the globe and now has locations in both Chicago and Los Angeles. Izard tells the Chronicle that the new menu will feature charcoal-grilled meats, fish, and vegetables in a new Josper oven, and some of Izard's signature goat preparations seem likely to make an appearance as well. (The Los Angeles menu features, for instance, goat liver mousse, goat curry, confit goat belly, and a rhubarb-braised goat shank, in addition to pork, beef, and chicken dishes.)

The team from Boka Restaurant Group, which has backed all of Izard's projects, only says, "Meant to be enjoyed family-style, Valley Goat’s whimsical, vibrant menu will feature a variety of shareable plates that are bold in flavor and bright in taste."

Izard's team is aiming for a 2025 opening, but no timeframe has been specified yet.

The Treehouse Sunnyvale hotel was originally slated to open in 2023, but appears to be significantly delayed.

This is Izard's first foray into running a restaurant in the Bay Area, and she tells the Chronicle she's especially inspired by bounty of produce at the Sunnyvale Farmers Market. "These are the things that make being a chef so fun and exciting," she tells the paper.

She says she had been considering opening something in the Bay Area even before the Treehouse opportunity came along.

Valley Goat will be Izard's seventh restaurant with Boka Restaurant Group. In addition to two Girl & the Goat locations, she has opened the Peruvian concept Cabra in both Chicago and LA ("cabra" means goat in Spanish), the Chinese-American restaurant Duck Duck Goat in Chicago, and Little Goat Diner in Chicago.

Izard now lives full-time in Los Angeles and has spent a fair amount of time in the Bay Area, but primarily in Sonoma County — much of that filming appearances on Guy Fieri's various shows, shot in a studio in Santa Rosa and at his home in Windsor, and the annual Tournament of Champions competition.

Izard won Top Chef Season 4, which was shot in her native Chicago in 2008, and became the first female chef to win the competition. She remains part of a small but elite club of female chefs who have prevailed on Top Chef in its 21 seasons, along with Kristen Kish, Mei Lin, Brooke Williamson, Kelsey Barnard Clark, and the Bay Area's own Melissa King.

Izard went on to win the James Beard Award for Best Chef: Great Lakes in 2013.

Photo: Instagram

An alleged dognapping occurred in Sunnyvale Monday, and the family called the cops after someone called to tell them he had their lost dog and wanted money to return him.

The dog's name is Norm, and it's unclear how he disappeared — he may have escaped and gotten lost. As KRON4 reports, soon after Norm went missing, his family received a phone call from a suspect demanding and undisclosed sum of money for his return.

They then called the Sunnyvale police, known as the Department of Public Safety (DPS), for help.

"Sunnyvale Public Safety Officers assisted the Family with setting up a fake meeting between them and the suspect to exchange Norm for the money," Sunnyvale DPS says in a Facebook post. "Officers in unmarked patrol vehicles responded to the agreed upon location and waited for the suspect. Once the Suspect arrived on scene with Norm he was taken into custody."

The dog was reportedly just fine, and in good health.

The suspect has been identified as Ahmad Rahish Najib, and he was booked into county jail on suspicion of extortion and grand theft, in addition to other charges.

This story with a happy ending follows on a great many dog-thievery stories in the Bay Area in recent years, though more often in the news have been stories of French bulldogs being taken for resale.

An early Sunday morning car accident in the Santa Clara County town of Sunnyvale saw a car hit a Walgreens and burst into flames, but an anonymous good Samaritan was able to pull two people from the wreckage, both of whom survived.

One man was killed at about 2:25 a.m. Sunday morning when a car crashed into a Walgreens and burst into flames at South Sunnyvale Avenue and El Camino Real in Sunnyvale, according to a Monday report from the Bay Area News Group. The Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety said in a statement that “speed and alcohol are believed to be a contributing factor to the collision,” and that “an adult male and female passenger from the vehicle were located at the scene with major injuries.”

But that statement leaves out a key detail that KRON4 covers in a follow-up report. Those two passengers who survived were able to do so because a good Samaritan pulled them from the burning car. The brave individual declined to be identified or speak to KRON4, but an eyewitness told the station what they saw at the scene.

“The car was burning and the young man dragged the bleeding male passenger out and away from the car. By then, the flames were leading and the tree it hit was already [on] fire, but this guy ran back to the car,” the witness told KRON4. “This guy is a hero and in this day, when people are more inclined to video than to help, I think our community should know that people like this exceptional, heroic young man exist."

While the anonymous good samaritan did rescue two people from the vehicle, he was not successful in his attempts to rescue the driver.

“He forced the driver’s side door open and tried to cut the seat belt off the driver,” the eyewitness said. “But this guy kept trying until the flames engulfed the car.”

The two survivors are reportedly cooperating with authorities. If you were a witness or have any additional information, you’re asked to call the Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety Major Accident Investigation Team at (408) 730-7109.

Related: Car Fire on Bay Bridge Causes Traffic In Both Directions [SFist]

Image: Google Street View

Two men alleged to be affiliated with gangs are in custody and stand accused of an astonishing 38 counts of auto burglary, and they’re both now in custody at the Santa Clara County Jail.

A fairly anodyne introductory sentence in a Bay City News story about a pair of accused car thieves understates the absolutely bonkers nature of this alleged theft ring. “Two gang members have been arrested in connection with a series of auto burglaries throughout the Bay Area, according to a spokesperson for the Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety,” the story begins.

The “gang members" accusation comes from law enforcement officials who believe that both suspects are affiliated with something called the Ghost Town Gang. But the “series of auto burglaries” is putting it charitably. The suspects, Oakland men James Barker (33 years old) and Exrill Wilson (39 years old) were arrested on Thursday, and Bay City News notes that “Warrants had been obtained for both for 38 counts of auto burglary.”

And it’s quite possible there’s even more where that came from. According to the announcement above from the Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety, “Detectives will continue to investigate to determine Wilson and Barker’s involvement in additional auto-burglaries in Sunnyvale and surrounding cities.”

So while the two men live in Oakland, many of these alleged burglaries occurred in Santa Clara County.  As Bay City News describes, “On Sept. 8, an auto burglary occurred at the Faultline Brewing Co., 1235 Oakmead Pkwy. in Sunnyvale. The suspect vehicle was described as a black BMW and was later determined to be a rental vehicle.”

A four-week investigation by the Sunnyvale police connected that same rented black BMW to a giant trove of car thefts. Both Barker and Wilson are now in custody at the Santa Clara County Jail, though their court date and possible bail information is not immediately available on the County of Santa Clara website.

Related: Car Theft and Burglary Suspect Injures Multiple People While Trying to Flee Police In San Francisco [SFist]

Photo: Jilbert Ebrahimi