Police: Pleasanton mall robberies part of gang-related crime spree

PLEASANTON, Calif. (KGO) -- Police say recent robberies at a Pleasanton mall are part of a larger crime spree committed by a teenage gang.

Investigators say the gang's criminal activity extends to the BART system, but they did offer some reassuring news about the young suspects: they've made a third arrest. The arrest happened early this morning in Oakland. The news is a relief as news was just beginning to spread that the crime spree reached to Orinda's BART parking lot.

RELATED: Police arrest suspects in robberies at mall in Pleasanton

Police believe they have all three people who are responsible for robbing a 63-year-old woman and a 17-year old girl in the Stoneridge Mall parking lot over the weekend. And as the Orinda police chief heard about the attacks he realized they sounded awfully similar to one that happened in his town's BART parking lot, also on Sunday.

"I was also watching the news that Sunday and I learned that the very same incident occurred in Pleasanton at the Stoneridge Mall. I thought it was very strange, very similar and I was trying to put the pieces together. So I called the Pleasanton police department and wanted to make sure they were aware of what happened at the Orinda BART station, and they were putting all these cases together," said Orinda Police Chief Mark Nagel.

In Orinda, a woman was approached as she was opening her car door. She was robbed of her personal belongings, but not her car and she is okay. Pleasanton police say two juveniles were arrested late Monday, and a third early Wednesday morning also in Oakland.

They will now have to piece together their evidence with other agencies to see if these three are responsible for the robbery at the Orinda BART station, along with robberies in San Leandro. They do think they got the guys who committed the mall robberies and are hopping they have busted up a gang-related crime spree.