Police are looking for the man who walked into the Little Caesar's Pizza eatery and robbed it of an undisclosed amount of cash on Friday afternoon.
The robbery occurred at 3:22 p.m. when a heavyset white male, aged 35 to 40, walked into the store and produced a note saying he was robbing the place. The employees handed the man some money and he fled the store. No vehicle or direction of travel was seen.
The suspect wore a black baseball cap, black jacket, dark jeans and black shoes.
Ceres police also worked the following cases in the past week:
• PICKUP STRIPPED, VANDALIZED: CERES - As if stealing the rims, tires and roll cage from a 2005 Chevy Silverado pickup wasn't enough damage inflicted on its owner, the culprits in the Dec. 17 crime also etched deep scratches in the paint job.
Police say thieves entered the equipment storage yard of Snelson Companies, Inc., at 1244 Marchy Lane, and zeroed in on a private vehicle owned by one of its employees. Snelson is the pipeline company that has been in Ceres replacing the PG&E line down the center of Whitmore Avenue between Highway 99 and Hughson.
Police have no suspects in the theft/vandalism which occurred between quitting time on Monday, Dec. 16 and 6:30 a.m. on Dec. 17.
Marchy Lane is a road off of Morgan Road just west of the Ceres wastewater treatment plant.
• ONE OF TWO SUICIDE ATTEMPTS BY HANGING FAILS: CERES - One Ceres woman hanged herself Sunday afternoon while an unrelated but similar suicide attempt was responded to by police later in the day.
Family members of a 16-year-old teenage girl living in the 2700 block of Tricia Court found her swinging from a rope unconscious and barely breathing after she attempted to end her life. She was cut down and received treatment. A 911 call was placed at 2:30 p.m.
A short time later, at 2:40 p.m. in the 2100 block of Sixth Street, a boyfriend found his 25-year-old girlfriend hanging dead with a rope around her neck. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
The Stanislaus County Department of Mental Health operates s 24-hour mental health and suicide prevention hotline at 558-4600.
• ASSAULT FOLLOWS VEHICLE CRASH: CERES - Police are looking for a man who allegedly brandished a knife Sunday after he got into an argument with a man whose vehicle he accidentally struck in the parking area of the El Rematitio Flea Market on Crows Landing Road.
The suspect is wanted because the vehicle he was driving, a gray 2000 Ford Mustang, was an unreported stolen vehicle, which was later abandoned and found by the Stanislaus County Sheriff's Department.
The assault with a deadly weapon case was filed at noon.
• BUSY NIGHT FOR CAR THEFTS: CERES - Ceres police responded to 14 reports of vehicle thefts on the shift that occurred Saturday night and early Sunday morning.
Police recovered four of the vehicles while officers of the California Highway Patrol found four of them in the unincorporated area of the county.
"Obviously there is a crew stealing cars," said Lt. Brent Smith.
• HSI FINDS 10,000 IMAGES OF CHILD PORN ON COMPUTER: TURLOCK - The arrest of a Turlock man by Homeland Security on child pornography allegations stemmed from an investigation into an international ring using the internet to exchange explicit images of children.
Jeffrey Randall Metcalfe, 46, was taken into custody Thursday morning by Homeland Security agents and arraigned today in federal court on charges of receiving and distributing child pornography.
Homeland Security's cyber crimes center and child exploitation investigation unit identified a website in June 2012 that had been used extensively to exchange images depicting child pornography. The agents were able to identify an account called "Asmodeusthe1st" and linked the internet protocol address to Metcalfe's Turlock residence.
"Asmodeus" is the name of a demon of lust that twists people's sexual desires, according to Binsfeld's classification of demons.
Law enforcement served a search warrant at Metcalfe's residence on Cedar Ridge Drive Thursday morning. At the home law enforcement found a computer used by Metcalfe that had images of "child erotica and child pornography" on the screen saver, according to the criminal complaint.
Metcalfe was at the home at the time the warrant was served and was interviewed by the Homeland Security agents. He admitted he had at least 10,000 still photos and videos depicting child pornography in his home and that his "goal" was to obtain 100,000.
The pictures included images of small children of the toddler and preschool age, preteens and teens, according to the criminal complaint. In the images children were pictured in sexually explicit and graphic poses and acts with other children and with adults.
Metcalfe told the agents he had a problem and had tried to get help before when he was previously convicted on federal charges of receiving and possessing child pornography, but that he never got any assistance. He said he wanted help again this time.
Agents asked Metcalfe if he ever had an inappropriate sexual relationship with a child and Metcalfe was initially hesitant to answer, the criminal complaint states.
One of the agents told Metcalfe that he was "asking for help for himself, but by not telling us (the agents) about his victims, they would never get help."
Metcalfe relented and gave agents the names of two minors. He said he had a sexual relationship with a 14-year-old when he was 18 and a 9 or 10-year-old when he was 30 years old.
The website Homeland Security found that led them to Metcalfe is not being publically divulged because the investigation is ongoing and additional suspects could be identified and apprehended.
The agents said Metcalfe's account was traced to 17 usernames on the website.
A review of Stanislaus County Superior Court records show a misdemeanor charge of possession of child pornography was lodged against Metcalfe in 2003, but dismissed the following year.
In 1992, Metcalfe pled guilty to two counts of first-degree custodial interference by enticing two minor girls to go with him out of state without the permission of their parents. At the time Metcalfe was on probation in California and had been ordered to have no contact with one of the girls. He was sentenced to three years formal probation and ordered to undergo an evaluation as a sex offender..
