From the Archives

Greg Anderson, Barry Bonds’ personal trainer, hired a legal top gun to fight a probable indictment stemming from a federal grand jury investigation into a Burlingame sports supplement lab the week of Nov. 15, 2003.

San Mateo-based William Rapoport, who represented one of the police officers in the Oakland Raiders’ case in Alameda County, was retained after Anderson’s first attorney was dismissed.

Bonds began working closely with Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative, or BALCO, in the winter of 2000, according to an interview he gave Muscle and Fitness magazine in June. Before that, Bonds connected with Anderson and the two have been training at Bay Area Fitness in Burlingame. Not much is known about Anderson or his connection with BALCO owner Victor Conte.

The grand jury investigation began after agents from the Internal Revenue Service, the Food and Drug Administration and the San Mateo County Narcotics Task Force handcuffed and questioned Anderson in front of Bay Area Fitness Sept. 3. The same day, BALCO, located nearby at 1520 Gilbreth Road in Burlingame, was raided as was Conte’s home in San Mateo’s Beresford neighborhood. Two days later Anderson’s Burlingame condominium was searched.

17 day laborers arrested

The San Mateo Police Department arrested 17 men for soliciting work on the street within blocks of the newly created worker resource center Friday Nov. 14, 2003, ending a three-month warning period.

The opening of the city-funded center in August 2003 allowed police to force day laborers from the street to the center. Before the center was opened at Fifth and Railroad avenues, the city was barred by the Constitution from forcing the men to leave the streets without somewhere to go.

Police were able to prevent the men from congregating along the Third Avenue Gateway, but some still continued to solicit work from the street in the blocks around the center. After receiving mounting complaints from both local businesses and workers using the center, the arrests were made.

The center was formed in response to complaints from residents and business owners about the number of men who gathered looking for work along the Third Avenue Gateway. They claimed the groups of men hurt property values and discouraged visitors to local businesses.

Gymboree packing its bags

After more than 20 years on the Peninsula, children’s clothing retailer Gymboree was packing its bags to move its base of operations to San Francisco the week of Nov. 15, 2003.

For Burlingame, that meant a loss of a business that employs about 350 people at its headquarters on Airport Boulevard and generated $550 million in nationwide sales last year.

Gymboree’s staff of about 350 employees was split between two buildings on Airport Boulevard; about 250 of its employees work at 700 Airport Blvd. and another 100 employees — mainly information technology workers — were housed at 750 Airport Blvd.

Landlord nabbed for taping tenant

An El Granada man who installed cameras and wiretaps in an apartment he rented to a former girlfriend was arrested after he confessed to the woman the week of Nov. 15, 2003.

Gary Alan Rubio, 47, told his female tenant that he placed a wireless camera in her bathroom and wiretapped the phone because he reportedly thought she already knew.

"He seemed to think she would just forget about it,” said Chief Deputy District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe.

Instead, the woman alerted the Sheriff’s Office and Rubio was charged with felony wiretapping and two misdemeanor counts of invading her privacy. He pleaded not guilty and will return to court Nov. 26 to set a preliminary hearing date.

The woman and Rubio had broken off their relationship before she moved into the duplex.

From the Archives features events that occurred five years ago this week. It appears in the Thursday

edition.