Sunnyvale Man, 69, Robbed During Morning Walk

Early Wednesday morning, just before 5 a.m., John, 69, was robbed walking in his Sunnyvale neighborhood. (He requested not using his last name because the suspects are not in custody.)

He was on Willowcreek Drive, when he noticed a gray car slowing down. And then the car turned around.

“When the car came up beside me and it turned off the lights and started to come up slowly, I started thinking to myself this is not good," John said. "One of the fellows yelled out the car he wanted money, and I said 'I’m on a walk, I don’t have any money.'"

John said the man got agitated, got out of the car and started yelling at him.

“[I] tried to avoid him and walked down the street and then I noticed he had a gun and that freaked me out," said John. "So I stopped and then I continued to say to him 'I don’t have any money, please don’t hurt me,' and tried to continue to walk away. And then he started waving the gun at me and fired in my direction. It was a 9 mm and pretty scary.”

He gave them his phone, and the suspects drove off. Police recovered the phone nearby, along with a 9 mm casing.

Now police need the public's help. They have released pictures of the car, taken from a neighborhood surveillance camera.

John told NBC 5 it is important that the community knows about this, so they can be safe, and not walk when it's dark outside.

“I would certainly hope they could find these kids and apprehend them. He meant me bodily harm. I was minding my own business getting some exercise,” said John.

There are now added patrols in the neighborhood between 4:30 and 5:30 a.m.

Police are asking anyone with information to call 911 or 214-749-8641. They believe the suspects' car may be a 2011 Dodge Avenger.

“Very humbling, spooky. This could happen to anybody. It's unfortunately a random act of violence. Just very sobering,” John said.
 

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