Crime

Berkeley Flock alert leads to North Face theft arrest

Police say Anthony Kerman returned to Berkeley about 24 hours after taking $2,400 in coats from the North Face outlet store.

The North Face Outlet on Fifth Street in Berkeley. Google Street View

A man wearing a stolen North Face coat, with the security tag still on, was arrested in Berkeley on Monday after a Flock camera alert, police said.

The case began Sunday afternoon when North Face Berkeley reported the theft of more than $2,400 in merchandise from its outlet store on Fifth Street.

A witness told Berkeley police that the driver left the scene in a Toyota Corolla, BPD said in response to a Scanner inquiry.

Less than 24 hours later, Monday at 1 p.m., police got a license plate alert from the city's Flock camera system that the Corolla was back in Berkeley near Ninth and Gilman streets.

Officers found the driver in the 1300 block of San Pablo Avenue, near Gilman Street, and pulled him over, BPD said.

The driver, identified as 37-year-old Anthony Kerman (no address), was wearing a new North Face jacket "with the price tag and anti-theft device still attached," according to police.

During a subsequent search, police found some of the coats that had been taken from North Face, BPD said, along with methamphetamine and "credit cards and checks that did not belong to him," police said.

BPD arrested Kerman on suspicion of burglary, grand theft, possession of stolen property, possession of a controlled substance and identity theft-related offenses, police said.

They also arrested his passenger, 41-year-old Dezary Jones (no address), on suspicion of drug offenses and outstanding arrest warrants, according to BPD.

Kerman is being held on $110,000 bail at Berkeley Jail and is scheduled for arraignment Thursday at Wiley Manuel Courthouse in Oakland, according to booking records.

Jones is being held on $107,500 bail at Santa Rita Jail, with the same arraignment date. She has no prior criminal cases listed in Alameda County.

Kerman has been arrested in the area repeatedly in recent years, according to public records.

His last charged case in Alameda County was a firearm case in Berkeley in 2022.

In that case, Kerman was ultimately convicted of possession of a firearm by a felon, with the other charges dropped in a plea deal, according to court records.