Arrest Made in Theft of Oakland Mayor's SUV
Oakland police have arrested a suspect in connection with the recent theft of Mayor Barbara Lee's official SUV. The vehicle was also recovered by authorities. The incident had drawn attention to ongoing concerns about rising crime rates within the city.
- The suspect, identified as 29-year-old Logan Tell DeSilva, was arrested and charged with burglary and auto theft. - The theft occurred on President's Day, a city holiday, after the suspect allegedly broke into the mayor's third-floor office at City Hall, stole the keys to the Ford Expedition, and drove it out of a nearby garage. - According to a source familiar with the investigation, surveillance footage indicated the suspect had been inside City Hall since the Friday before the theft, camping out on the 11th floor over the weekend. - The city-owned SUV was recovered hours after the theft in Vallejo, approximately 25 miles from Oakland, with the help of license plate reader technology. - This incident is not an isolated one for Oakland officials; former Mayor Sheng Thao's car was broken into in 2023, and Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price had a laptop stolen from her security team's vehicle that same year. - The theft highlights a larger trend of rising vehicle crime in Oakland, which saw a 46% increase in stolen cars between January 1st and December 10th, 2023, compared to the same period in the previous year. - Oakland's property crime rate is one of the highest in the nation, with 7,230 incidents per 100,000 residents, and the city ranks in the top 1% for property crime nationally. - The incident has raised questions about security at City Hall, which is guarded by a private security company. A city council member noted that the same SUV had been broken into the previous year while in a city garage.
