A serial burglar/home-invader has been scaring Chinatown's elderly in a series of four crimes in this normally not-crime-ridden neighborhood at least crime that's not being perpetrated by Shrimp Boy and the Hung Moon Ghee Kong Tong. As KTVU reports, the same African-American man is suspected of committing a series of two burglaries and two home-invasion robberies in the last two months.
Elderly victims have described a balding, 5-foot-5-inch suspect who, in one incident, sneaked his way into a residence hotel and held a butcher knife to the throat of a 65-year-old woman, demanding her cash. He also robbed three other victims, apparently residents of SROs in the neighborhood and therefore not the likeliest of robbery victims, at least by those outside the community.
Sadly, this case isn't the first in recent memory targeting elderly victims in Chinatown. In July, police arrested 57-year-old German Woods for very similar crimes that occurred between April and July in both Chinatown and Japantown he had been posing as an exterminator in at least one or two instances. And this follows on the case two years of elderly Chinese women being conned out of money by several female Chinese-American grifters a "blessing" scam that turned out to be occurring in Chinatowns all over the country.
As always, if you have any info or recognize the suspect, you can call the SFPD's anonymous tip line at 415-575-4444, or text a tip to TIP411 with “SFPD” in the message.
