“Cupertino City Council honors teenage heroes for help in robbery investigation - San Jose Mercury News” |
| Posted: 06 Jan 2011 08:04 PM PST A lazy Saturday afternoon in August turned out to be anything but for a group of recently honored Cupertino High School students. While hanging out near a townhouse complex's pool, Tobias Shin, Andrew Yoon and their friends Rodney Tang and Brandon Gong spotted several $20 bills floating around a suspicious hockey goalie Halloween mask. The boys picked up what amounted to $180 in cash and began searching for the money's owners in the townhouse complex. The teens' theories as to why the money was abandoned ranged from a drug deal gone bad or someone dropping a large sum of money from a recent townhouse complex association meeting. After coming up empty, Tobias said the boys decided to hold on to the free cash and head out for lunch. After walking past the Bank of America on Stevens Creek Boulevard, which was buzzing with police activity, the group put two and two together. As it turns out, there had been a violent bank robbery earlier in the day, when two men stormed into the bank wearing the hockey masks. They jumped over the counters and yelled at the tellers before making off with several thousand dollars, according to Sgt. Ryan Elder, a detective with the sheriff office's robbery and homicide unit handling the case. The two suspects fled through the townhouse complex and left the money and mask behind in their haste. Tobias and Andrew went to the bank, returned the money and directed authorities to the hockey mask, which has since been processed in crime labs to recover DNA profiles and fingerprints, Elder said.After the robbery, authorities were able to nail down some leads. Both suspects were apprehended separately over a series of weeks and months and are being held on unrelated charges while the investigation continues. The Cupertino City Council honored all four teens on Dec. 21. The proclamation from Mayor Gilbert Wong came more than four months after the robbery, due to the time it took to find the suspects and make a dent in the investigation. One of the suspects had eluded capture until early November, Elder said. Investigators and the city council were impressed with the teens' willingness to find the money's rightful owner. Some even reflected on their own scruples if they had found the money when they were teenagers. "I think it's a true service to our community and a great reflection on their family and the way they were raised," Elder said. "The moral character they showed to not only take the effort, but to the extremes they went to. They literally went door to door before they realized it was taken from the bank." The mask is expected to be a key piece of evidence in the crime. The investigation is still an ongoing process and the DNA has not been fully compared to those in custody. "It's not like on TV where you are able to get the results in an hour," Elder said. Tobias and Andrew were inundated with photographs and hugs from relatives after the Dec. 21 proclamation. Tobias enjoyed the honor in helping bring the case closer to resolution, but felt that it was unfortunate that teens were being honored for simply doing what should have been the right thing all along. However, Elder said that dealing with youth in a positive light is a rare treat for those working in the world of violent crime. "It's a great opportunity for us because the reality of the matter is that the vast majority of our interaction with people and teenagers is because of a poor choice," he said. "In this case, we were able to recognize that a right choice was made. It helps really take a negative incident in our city and shine a much brighter light on what this city is about. " Both Andrew and Tobias also received $200 each from Bank of America and certificates of appreciation from the sheriff's office. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
| You are subscribed to email updates from heroes series - Bing News To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
0 comments:
Post a Comment