Walnut Creek Citizens, Officers Honored for Bravery, Service

Last Oct. 24, Mark Moore was enjoying a rainy Sunday afternoon at Starbucks on North Main Street, reading the New York Times. Over at another table, a 70-year-old man was offering to sell a $20,000 necklace to a prospective buyer he had met through Craigslist. The older man handed the necklace over to the stranger to try on. 

Suddenly, the tables of the coffee house toppled like pins in a bowling alley, Moore said. People began shouting "stop him!" "Someone may have shouted robbery," said Moore. 

Moore saw a guy with a goatee rush past his table, which was next to the exit. Knowing nothing about the necklace but immediately suspecting that the goateed man had done something illegal, Moore jumped up and gave chase.  He pursued the man north on Main Street and around the corner to the parking lot behind the Performance Bike Shop on North Broadway.  "He was a little bit taller than me and in good shape," Moore said. "But I was really adamant about catching the guy." 

A woman was sitting behind the wheel of a parked Ford Explorer nonchalantly eating a sandwich. The getaway car, Moore surmised. The goateed man jumped into the back of the SUV, while Moore rushed to reach into the driver's side window and grab the keys. The woman managed to drive the SUV forward a few feet, but hit another car. She jumped out and ran off. 

Moore got the keys but to his amazement, the goateed man, rather than run off with his accomplice, confronted Moore, removed the necklace from around his neck and threw it at Moore. To Moore's further amazement, the man didn't run off but came after Moore, throwing a punch and knocking him to the ground. The two scuffled. When the man pinned Moore down, Moore realized that the man seemed intent on venting his anger that he and broken up his robbery scheme.

The man threw some more punches  but with police converging on the area, he ran off and jumped down into Walnut Creek, where he hid for a little while, as  24. 

A 40-year-old man was arrested more than three weeks later in Pittsburg on suspicion of stealing an SUV and attempting to carjack three other vehicles. Walnut Creek police connected the man to the necklace robbery. His actions in Pittsburg confirmed for Moore that he had been dealing with a potentially dangerous and  pathologically dangerous individual.

Moore was one of three citizens who received commendations from the  on Monday. Chief Joel Bryden handed the certificate to Moore during a special ceremony that also acknowledged officers for bravery, officers receiving promotions. Among those recognized were volunteers. This includes the 32 reserve officers "who do the job most people wouldn't want to do" while putting in 13,000 hours of work a year, and department volunteers who perform a variety of tasks behind the scenes that keep the department functioning.

Aside from Moore, others singled out were:

• Officer John Rabinowitz, who on June 10, 2010, entered the window of a burning apartment building to pull someone out and rescue that person.
• Cadet of the Year Bryan Fidelibus, a graduate of local schools including Walnut Creek Intermediate and Las Lomas High School, who has put in 400 hours of volunteer work in the past year
• Terri Wetter was the eagle-eyed neighbor who on March 18, 2010 heard a loud bang come from a home on Huston Road and saw a suspicious looking Dodge Caravan parked outside--and called police with the van's license plate number.  That tip led to a Martinez home where police arrested a 41-year-old man in possession of jewelry and computers he had allegedly stolen from the Huston Road home earlier that day. 

Misty Lohe, a San Ramon woman, was one of the three honored with a citizen's commendation.

She happened to be pulling out of the garage above Lark Creek Walnut Creek on Nov. 11 at about 2 p.m. when she saw a man breaking the window of a parked BMW and pulling out two bags. Lohe immediately called 911, and was on the phone to dispatchers as she drove along Locust on her way to pick up one of her daughters when she saw the man walking casually with those two bags on Locust Street, toward Hubcap Diner.  

Police arrested the man and returned the stolen goods to the BMW's owner. 

While praising Moore, Bryden and other officials cautioned him to not take such risks again. Moore, a high-tech entrepreneur, said he was gratified to help retrieve the stolen necklace and to do the right thing, but chasing a man who turned out to be so unpredictable and violent? "This was not a smartest thing I ever did," he said.