Police investigate reported armed robbery in Healdsburg

In what police are calling a rare crime, a woman said she was robbed by a gunman in downtown Healdsburg while walking to her car Tuesday evening.

The woman told police she was returning to her car at about 6:30 p.m. in the large public parking lot behind the Healdsburg Hotel and the Bear Republic Brewing Co. when a man holding a handgun approached her. He demanded her wallet and cellphone, Healdsburg police Sgt. John Haviland said.

The woman, who wasn’t identified, had finished her workday and was headed home, Haviland said. She handed over the items, and the man retreated to a waiting car where another man sat behind the wheel. He got into the passenger seat and left.

The woman drove to her Healdsburg home and called police at 7 p.m. She offered a vague description of the man and said he left in a dark-colored, four-door sedan. She gave police a possible, partial license plate number.

“You really don’t know what you would do under those circumstances,” Haviland said. “They took her cellphone so she didn’t have a way to call.”

Armed robberies are infrequent in Sonoma County. Most cases involve bank robberies and home invasions by intruders seeking marijuana and money.

“We haven’t had very many of these over the years. It is out of place,” Healdsburg police Lt. Matt Jenkins said.

“It’s unsettling to find out that this happened here in Healdsburg. It wasn’t late, it was in a very public area, and the crime was planned,” said Doralice Handal, owner of the Healdsburg Cheese Shop. “I am sure the victim in this particular crime will have trouble going into that area again for a while. That’s not good.”

In April, a 19-year-old man was stabbed at a downtown Healdsburg shopping center. Police suspect gang members were involved in the attack, which left the victim with multiple superficial wounds. The stabbing took place near the Vineyard Plaza Shopping Center, not far from Tuesday’s reported armed robbery.

Two bank robberies occurred in spring of 2012, but neither involved guns being shown. Two cases in 2013 involved men with knives, but those were confrontations. The last robbery in town with guns was in October 2009 and was a home invasion case over marijuana, Jenkins said.

Jenkins said gang involvement wasn’t suspected at this point in Tuesday’s robbery.

Healdsburg police issued an ?area-wide alert to other law enforcement agencies Tuesday night and haven’t heard back regarding any similar cases, Jenkins said.

Haviland asked anyone who may have witnessed the robbery or seen anything in the parking lot to contact officers at 431-3377.

Staff Writer Elizabeth M. Cosin contributed to this report. ?You can reach Staff Writer Randi Rossmann at 521-5412 or randi.?rossmann@pressdemocrat.com.