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It's no secret to anyone who rents an apartment in Morgan Hill—it's costly. Among the reasons why is a basic tenant of economics—supply and demand. And in the Bay Area, demand far exceeds supply. That may change in Morgan Hill over the next several years as nearly 500 market-rate units are expected to be built.

High-speed chaseThe driver of a black Dodge Charger led police on a high-speed chase from San Martin north to Morgan Hill, ending when the suspect crashed the vehicle on Barrett Avenue near San Pedro Avenue. The chase reached speeds faster than 100mph, and officers placed spikes in the roadway at one intersection in an attempt to stop him. The driver was arrested on suspicion of DUI. The chase started about midnight Feb. 24 on Llagas Avenue in San Martin.Auto burglarySomeone broke into a white Cadillac parked on the 18500 block of Butterfield Boulevard. Stolen from the vehicle were an FM transmitter and a CD case that contained a number of DVDs. The crime was reported 3:03pm Feb. 27.A thief or thieves broke into a white Chevrolet van overnight on Hale Avenue. The break-in was reported 7:46am Feb. 28.Someone smashed the window of a white 2017 Honda Pilot, and stole a baby carrier from the vehicle. The vehicle was parked on Oak View Circle. The crime was reported 8:21am Feb. 28.A thief or thieves smashed a window on a rented Chevrolet Tahoe parked at Holiday Inn Express, 17035 Condit Road, and rummaged through the vehicle. Two backpacks were sitting on the ground outside the damaged vehicle when the crime was reported 2:31pm Feb. 23.Grand theftSomeone stole an Apple computer and the victim, a San Jose resident, tracked the device to a home on Sword Dancer Court. The homeowner returned the computer to the owner after police contacted him. The homeowner told police his son, a drug addict, stole the computer. The theft was reported 9:04pm Feb. 27.A thief or thieves stole two bicycles worth about $2,000 from the back of the victim’s vehicle, which was parked at The Residence Inn, 18620 Madrone Parkway. The crime was reported 9:29am Feb. 24. Stolen vehicleA thief or thieves stole a white 1990 Acura Integra from a parking spot on Larkspur Place. The theft was reported 10:12am Feb. 28.Someone stole a white 2005 Chevrolet Astro van from the 200 block of Burnett Avenue. The vehicle was recovered in San Jose, missing its front license plate. The theft was reported 1:25pm Feb. 23. BurglarySomeone tried to steal a hydraulic construction lift from a commercial construction site at East Third Street and Monterey Road in downtown Morgan Hill. An officer saw the suspect trying to steal the equipment, but the suspect fled the area on foot. The burglar was able to partially remove the lift from the construction site before police began to pursue him. The crime was reported 2:19am Feb. 24.A burglar or burglars broke into a home on Ponderosa Court while the residents were not present. Police reports did not specify if anything was stolen from the home. The crime was reported 6:19pm Feb. 28.Petty theftSomeone attempted to steal health and beauty supplies from Wal-mart, 170 Cochrane Plaza. The subject was admonished by police for trespassing. The crime was reported 11:38pm Feb. 28.A thief stole two DeWalt power tool products, together worth about $600, from The Home Depot, 860 E. Dunne Ave. The crime was reported 11:22am March 1.  VandalismA vandal or vandals used a crowbar to damage a city water valve on the 16500 block of Railroad Avenue. The valve was also spray-painted with graffiti. The crime was reported 12:50pm Feb. 23. TheftSomeone stole donated items from outside the Goodwill trailer in the Safeway parking lot, 840 E. Dunne Ave. The male suspect was cited and released. The crime was reported 5:55pm Feb. 22.All subjects are innocent until proven guilty. Information is compiled from public records.

Two Morgan Hill teens are in custody after a Feb. 21 shooting in a busy shopping center that left a young San Jose man injured, according to police. It was the first shooting reported in Morgan Hill in 2018.One of the suspects was charged Tuesday with assault with a deadly weapon at a hearing at the Hall of Justice in San Jose, according to authorities.Investigators are trying to determine how one of the 17-year-old suspects acquired a handgun, which is illegal for California residents younger than 18 to own. Authorities have declined to release the suspects’ names because they are juveniles.Police responded to multiple 911 calls from witnesses who reported the shooting about 8pm at Tennant Station, according to MHPD Sgt. Troy Hoefling. Officers responded and located an 18-year-old male from San Jose suffering from a gunshot wound to his upper leg. Standing nearby was a large group of witnesses.Officers determined the man was shot in front of Commonwealth Credit Union, which is located next to Tennant Avenue in the shopping center, across the street from the intersection with Church Street. One of the suspects had fired two rounds, only one of which hit the victim.Witnesses at the scene told police that two subjects were involved in the shooting, according to Hoefling. Officers located one of the suspects who was still in the area, and ordered him to stop. That suspect—later identified as a 17-year-old male—fled on foot, but police caught up to him and arrested him after a short pursuit. In addition to being involved in the shooting, police booked him on suspicion of possession of an illegal weapon, as he had a miniature bat on him.Witnesses also told police that the second suspect was seen running northbound on Church Street before officers arrived.Police were able to identify the outstanding suspect as a 17-year-old male, according to police. MHPD officers were joined by Santa Clara County deputies—plus K9 dogs and a police helicopter—in searching the surrounding neighborhood the evening of Feb. 21.A police helicopter hovered above the neighborhood, using an infrared camera to search for “hot spots” on the ground where someone might be hiding.Authorities also searched the suspect’s residence, but were unable to immediately locate him or the weapon used in the shooting.The second suspect later turned himself in at Santa Clara County Juvenile Hall, according to police. He was booked on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon. Police have not recovered the handgun used in the shooting, Hoefling said.The shooting victim was transported to San Jose Regional Medical Center shortly after paramedics arrived at the scene, and he was released the following day.AltercationThe police investigation revealed that the two suspects approached the victim at the intersection of Tennant and Church, and a verbal argument “immediately began,” police said. One of the suspects pulled out a black semiautomatic handgun and fired two rounds, one of which struck the victim in the leg.Hoefling later said the incident does not appear to be gang-related, but the suspects and victim knew each other. He added the altercation escalated quickly, from a loud verbal argument to two shots fired by one of the suspects.A Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office spokeswoman said one of the suspects was charged with assault with a semiautomatic firearm at a Feb. 27 hearing, with an enhancement for causing great bodily harm. The other suspect is scheduled to appear March 5. Both hearings were set to take place at the Hall of Justice in San Jose.Statistically, Tennant Station has been a safe shopping center. Since Jan. 1, 2017, police have responded to only two violent incidents at Tennant Station—the Feb. 21 shooting and a robbery of a cell phone from a Safeway customer on May 29, 2017, according to police.Other types of calls are more frequent at the shopping center, which houses the grocery store as well as a movie theater, restaurants and other shops. Since Jan. 1, 2017, these calls include 36 reports of theft, 29 reported disturbances and 25 “suspicious person” calls, according to MHPD Police Analyst Margarita Balagso.The shooting is the first in Morgan Hill in 2018. The last shooting here was in December 2017, when three young men entered a home on Calle Mazatan and shot the 62-year-old resident. Police said the suspects, who were arrested down the road after they fled the residence in a vehicle, knew the victim and robbed him before they shot him.The victim survived the gunshot wound.In October 2017, police also responded to a shooting in the area of Denali and Scotts Bluff Drive. The suspect, who has not been identified or arrested, shot at a residence during a dispute about unsafe driving, according to police. No injuries were reported in that incident.  On April 1, 2017, Morgan Hill police arrested a suspect from Soledad who shot a man in Morgan Hill during a road-rage incident. The victim survived that shooting.

Morgan Hill Mayor Steve Tate last Thursday gave the annual “State of the City” address to a modest crowd in the council chambers, where he touched on accomplishments from last year and upcoming challenges in the year ahead.

While recreational cannabis has been legal in California for over a year, the City of Morgan Hill is still testing the waters on whether to jump headfirst into the green gold rush.

Morgan Hill Police gave credit to witnesses and a victim in the community for the recent arrests of four auto burglars, including a pair who said they broke into so many vehicles they lost count, according to authorities.The arrests were made in two different vehicle stops. The first was Feb. 23, when a Morgan Hill Police officer stopped a vehicle near East Dunne Avenue and Hill Road, according to a press release from MHPD.The occupants were two juveniles, age 16 and 17, from the East Bay, according to police. They were both on probation for weapons related charges.Officers conducted a probation search of the vehicle, and found numerous items including a leather Coach briefcase, new men’s watch still in the box, an Apple iPad, designer sunglasses and a GoPro camera, police said.As the officer was completing the search, MHPD dispatchers announced that a resident had just called to report his vehicle had been broken into, and said items matching those found in the juveniles’ car were stolen, according to police.The two juveniles were arrested on suspicion of possession of stolen property and possession of burglary tools, police said. They were cited and released to their parents.Police declined to name the suspects because they are juveniles.Police: Two arrested in gas station parking lotThe second incident resulted in the arrest of two suspects who had stolen items from up to 30 victims. The arrests happened about 12:44pm Feb. 25, when an “alert citizen” reported two suspicious men were sitting in a car, smoking something out of a piece of tin foil, according to Morgan Hill police. The car was parked at the Chevron gas station at Cochrane Road and Madrone Parkway.MHPD officers responded and made contact with the two men, who were not parked in front of the adjacent mini-market, police said.The officers immediately noticed narcotics paraphernalia in plain sight inside the car. As more officers arrived and the occupants were removed from the vehicle, police observed a handgun between the passenger’s door and floorboard, according to authorities.Both men were handcuffed and arrested, police said.Police determined the handgun was in fact a BB gun that was “almost impossible to ascertain real from fake,” reads the press release.Officers continued a search of the vehicle and found a “multitude of stolen property and weapons,” authorities said. The stolen items included credit cards, gift cards, license plates, a machete and military discharge papers—none of which belonged to the suspects.Also recovered from the vehicle were smoking pipes, tin foil with narcotics residue and nearly a gram of what police think was heroin, police said. The vehicle contained so much stolen property that police impounded it for evidence.Police think at least 25 to 30 victims will be identified from the recovered stolen items.The suspects were identified as Tyler Del Vecchia, 27, of Morgan Hill, and Justin J. Holderfield, 30, of Morgan Hill, according to police.“Both suspects admitted to burglarizing ‘so many vehicles that they could not even remember all of the locations,’” the press release states.They were booked at Santa Clara County Jail on suspicion of possession of stolen property, auto burglary, being under the influence of a controlled substance, possession of paraphernalia, possession of heroin, possession of an expandable baton and possession of an imitation firearm, police said.“We can’t solve these crimes without you, our Eagle-Eye citizens!” the press release concludes.Anyone who has been a victim of a recent auto burglary or whose unlocked vehicle has been ransacked can call MHPD at (669) 253-4960 or (669) 253-4985.

Four people—including a 6-year-old child and an adult bicyclist—were killed in separate traffic accidents in San Benito and Santa Clara counties in less than a week, according to the California Highway Patrol.Two of the accidents occurred Sunday, Feb. 25 in the Hollister area, and were reported less than an hour apart. One of these resulted in the arrest of an allegedly intoxicated driver on a homicide charge in connection with the death of his 6-year-old son, who was a passenger in his father’s vehicle, according to police.About 5pm Feb. 25, authorities responded to a single-vehicle accident on McCloskey Road, just east of San Felipe Road.The Highway Patrol reported that Jesus Mora, 30 of Hollister, had been driving a GMC Sierra westbound on McCloskey Road with two children in the front seat, when he drifted “completely off the roadway onto the dirt shoulder” of the roadway, according to a press release from the CHP Hollister-Gilroy area office. The driver lost control of the vehicle and slammed into a wooden utility pole.Police said Mora allegedly swerved off the road “due to his level of intoxication.”The collision resulted in fatal injuries to Mora’s 6-year-old passenger, who was pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics, according to the CHP press release. The other child, a 7-year-old boy, was flown to Santa Clara Valley Medical Center with major injuries.At the scene, Mora referred to the two young boys in the vehicle as his children, according to CHP Officer Chris Miceli.Mora, the driver, suffered minor injuries in the accident and was transported to Hazel Hawkins Hospital in Hollister, according to police.Mora was arrested on suspicion of murder and driving while intoxicated, causing bodily injury. He was booked into the San Benito County Jail, according to police.Motorcyclist pronounced deadLess than an hour earlier on Feb. 25—about 4:10pm—authorities responded to a collision in which an SUV struck a motorcycle, resulting in a motorcyclist’s death, according to CHP.That accident took place at the intersection of SR 156 and San Felipe Road in Hollister.A 43-year-old Gilroy man was driving a 2015 Harley Davidson motorcycle with a 29-year-old female passenger, also of Gilroy, on the back, according to police. The driver of the motorcycle was stopped at a red traffic light in the left turn of SR 156, poised to turn onto northbound San Felipe Road.A 2005 GMC Sierra, driven by a 66-year-old Hollister man, was approaching the intersection on southbound SR 156 at about 50 mph. For an unknown reason, the motorcyclist began making a left turn onto San Felipe Road while the traffic light was still red, police said.After entering the intersection, the motorcyclist began applying the vehicle’s brakes in an effort to avoid colliding with the approaching GMC, according to police. The Gilroy man was unable to avoid a collision with the SUV.As a result, the Harley Davidson driver suffered fatal injuries upon impact, and was pronounced dead at the scene, police said. His passenger suffered major injuries and was transported by air ambulance to Natividad Medical Center.Authorities do not think alcohol or drugs were a factor in this collision. The accident is under investigation.Single-vehicle death on Pacheco PassAnother single-vehicle accident resulted in the driver’s death Feb. 24 on SR 152 in eastern unincorporated Santa Clara County east of Gilroy, according to the CHP.About 2:10pm, a 49-year-old Monterey woman was driving a 2014 Ford eastbound on SR 152 (Pacheco Pass), with a 49-year-old female passenger in the vehicle, police said.For an unknown reason, the driver turned the vehicle to the right, causing the Ford to leave the roadway, travel across the right shoulder and collide with a tree, police reported. The collision occurred just east of Lake Road.The driver of the vehicle suffered fatal injuries, and was pronounced dead at the scene, police said. The passenger suffered minor injuries and was flown to San Jose Regional Medical Center.Authorities do not think alcohol or drugs were a factor in the accident, which is under investigation.On Monday, Feb. 26, CHP issued another press release urging motorists to drive with caution in response to the unusual cluster of three traffic fatalities in the area in one weekend. The release advises residents to “drive safely and courteously at all times,” obey traffic laws and slow down because “speed is a factor in most collisions.”Furthermore, officers reminded residents not to drink and drive. In 2016, more 1,800 people were killed in California in accidents in which alcohol was a factor, according to the CHP.“While any loss of life is tragic, a loss of life resulting from something preventable is especially troubling,” the Feb. 26 press release states. “Most traffic collisions are preventable.”Cyclist struck by ToyotaThe recent rash of fatalities began Feb. 19, when a Cupertino bicyclist died after a collision with a Toyota just south of Hollister, according to police.The accident occurred about 5pm. A 2001 Toyota, driven by a 40-year-old San Lorenzo man, was traveling northbound on SR 25 just south of Cienega Road, according to a CHP press release.The 65-year-old cyclist, riding a Trek bicycle, was traveling on SR 25 in the same direction as the Toyota, when the bigger vehicle approached from behind, according to police.The Toyota collided with the bicyclist “due to the unsafe speed of” the Toyota, police said.The collision caused the cyclist to be ejected from his bicycle before hitting the asphalt roadway, according to CHP. The Toyota stayed at the scene, where authorities pronounced the cyclist dead.The driver of the Toyota suffered a minor cut to his finger, according to police. Three passengers in the Toyota were uninjured.It “does not appear” that alcohol or drugs were a factor in this accident, according to police. The accident remains under investigation.Coroner’s officials in San Benito and Santa Clara counties had not yet identified those killed in the accidents, as of noon, Feb. 26.Anyone with information about these accidents can call CHP at (408) 848-2324.

A second suspect surrendered to police in relation to a shooting that took place near Tennant Station in Morgan Hill Feb. 21, according to authorities.About 8pm Feb. 21, Morgan Hill Police were dispatched to the intersection of Tennant Avenue and Church Street, in response to multiple reports that a person had been shot.When officers arrived, they found an 18-year-old man from San Jose suffering from a gunshot wound in his upper leg, police said. The victim was transported to San Jose Regional Medical Center with non-life threatening injuries.Witnesses at the scene told police that two subjects were involved in the shooting, according to Morgan Hill Police. Officers located one of the suspects who was still in the area, and ordered him to stop. The suspect—later identified as a 17-year-old male—fled on foot, but police caught up to him and arrested him after a short pursuit.Witnesses also told police that the second suspect was seen running northbound on Church Street before officers arrived.Police were able to identify the outstanding suspect as a 17-year-old male, according to police. MHPD officers were joined by Santa Clara County deputies—plus K9 dogs and a police helicopter—in searching the surrounding neighborhood the evening of Feb. 21. Authorities also searched the suspect’s residence, but were unable to immediately locate him or the weapon used in the shooting.The second suspect later turned himself in at Santa Clara County Juvenile Hall, according to police. He was booked on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon.Police are not releasing the names of the suspects because they are juveniles.The police investigation revealed that the two suspects approached the victim at the intersection of Tennant and Church, and a verbal argument “immediately began,” police said. One of the suspects pulled out a black semiautomatic handgun and fired two rounds, one of which struck the victim in the leg.The victim was treated and released from the hospital by the following evening, police said.Anyone with information about this incident can call MHPD at (408) 779-2101.

When a small-town girl, determined to make a new life for herself, comes to the Big Apple, she discovers life is more complicated than she first thought.