Rolex, gold coins snatched in 'follow-home' robbery
According to Berkeley police, $45,000 in gold coins and $3,000 in cash were taken during the robbery, among other items.
A man has been charged with robbing a couple at their Berkeley hotel after following them home from a San Pablo casino, court papers show.
According to Berkeley police, $45,000 in gold coins and $3,000 in cash were taken during the robbery, among other items.
On Jan. 6, the couple went to Casino San Pablo for a night out, police said. They left around 12:40 a.m. and went to a nearby restaurant.
According to police, Christopher Bagby and an associate "waited over an hour" for the couple to finish eating, then followed them to the DoubleTree hotel in the Berkeley Marina.
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The couple parked their Jeep rental in the hotel's valet area shortly after 2 a.m.
That's when a stranger in a mask grabbed the male victim by the shirt "and demanded his watch, ring and wallet while pointing a gun at him," police said.
The watch was described as a Rolex and the ring was gold with diamonds in it.
The robber "threatened to kill him if he did not hand over his belongings," he told police.
When the robber tried to enter the Jeep, where the woman was still sitting, the male victim attempted to stop him, police said.
The robber struck him in the head with his gun and took the woman's phone and purse, containing the cash and 10 1-ounce gold coins, police said.
As Berkeley police worked on the case, they shared the info they had with neighboring agencies.
That included information about the car, a white Dodge Charger, police tied to the Berkeley robbery.
Surveillance footage showed the car trailing the victims just prior to the crime, authorities said.
BPD later heard from a Fremont police officer who said he had connected the same pair to a similar robbery in his city in the hours before the Berkeley case.
Fremont police also "located evidence" that connected the culprits to Berkeley, BPD said.
Police also credited Flock cameras with helping them solve the case.
At the end of January, Fremont police arrested Bagby in French Camp, in San Joaquin County, according to charging papers.
Christopher Bagby. BPD
When Berkeley police interviewed him, Bagby "denied seeing the victims at the casino, denied following them from San Pablo and denied being in the Berkeley Marina" at the time of the robbery, BPD wrote.
The Alameda County district attorney's office ultimately charged him with the Jan. 6 armed robbery in Fremont and the Jan. 7 armed robbery in Berkeley, according to court records.
The 35-year-old Lathrop man has entered not-guilty pleas in both cases and is set to return to court April 13 for a pretrial hearing.
Bagby previously posted bail, set at $100,000, and is no longer in custody, records show.
