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Published on 03/10/1997 All articles from this issue

Change coming to crime-ridden Los Altos motel, new owners say

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By Joanne Griffith Domingue / Town Crier Staff Writer

The only motel in Los Altos may be shedding its reputation as a crime center for the city and become lodging for business people.

"We're going to change the inside and outside," said George Lau, manager of the corporation that bought the Four Seasons Motor Inn on El Camino Real in November 1996.

"Everything will be totally redone. We'll have new people here, and we will operate it (the motel) differently," he said.

Some in town may say "it's about time" and heave a sigh of relief.

Until recently, the Los Altos police have received more calls to the Four Seasons than to any other one place in the city.

From July 5, 1994, to July 28, 1996, police responded to 145 calls at that spot, more than one per week. Of those calls, which included 25 for suspicious circumstances and 23 for disorderly conduct, police classified 10 as "serious-violent crimes," wrote Los Altos Police Officer Mark Laranjo in a report to Police Chief Lucy Carlton.

A woman reported an attempted rape on June 18, 1996. A man came, with a knife, and tried to bind her hands. "She screamed, he fled," said Sgt. Bob Lacey in an interview at the time.

The high point of egregious crime at the Four Seasons came a month later, in a two-day period, in July 1996.

While arresting two men, 34 and 41, July 12 on charges of check forgery, police discovered the trappings of a methamphetamine lab.

While investigating the drug lab, someone pointed out that another guy was growing marijuana on the deck outside his room. On July 13, police arrested the alleged pot farmer.

"It's a matter of some concern when our police detected a methamphetamine site - we want to make sure there's no hazard posed to the public," said Los Altos Mayor Francis La Poll.

Police spent 171.15 hours in two years handling problems at the Four Seasons.

Lau said things will be changing. He said the new owners were not aware of the police activity at the Four Seasons before they bought the motel. But they did learn of it after the sale went through.

The new owners bought the motel from Helen Tam who had been an absentee owner.

According to information on the business license of the motel on file with the city, the Four Seasons is now owned by a company, run by a man named Feng Wang. The business address is at the motel.

Lau said he is manager of the corporation that owns the Four Seasons, "a newly set up Los Altos corporation." And that corporation, Lau said, is a subsidiary of a corporation that is based in Hunan, China.

"This is a nice area," Lau said. The new owners are targeting a new market - business people. This will lead "to a new clientele who stays at the motel."

The owners plan to renovate and remodel "the whole place, with new furniture, new phones. The current monthly clients will need to move eventually," Lau said.

The owners have met with city staff. They are getting acquainted and working together, both Lau and city staff said. There is no timeline for the renovations.

But "things will be changing," Lau said. "There will be a lot less police calls in the future. We're in business. We want to turn it (the motel) around, to make it a nice place."

But it hasn't happened yet. In a March 4 incident at the Four Seasons, police found a subject "bleeding profoundly in his room on the second floor from cuts on his hands and wrist," said Los Altos Police Sgt. Bob Lacey. They found the subject's gun on the ground outside a broken window.

"It was a bizarre, middle of the night incident," Lacey said.