Crime Report: La Cañada woman returns from vacation to find home burglarized, two cars stolen
June 22
Thefts: La Cañada High School, 4463 Oak Grove Drive. A woman made two separate reports regarding bicycles belonging to her family that had been stolen from the high school campus. In the first incident, her son borrowed his sister’s bike on June 8 to ride to school because he’d left his own bike on campus at an earlier date and secured it with a friend’s combination lock. He said the friend would not provide him with the combination, so he couldn’t retrieve it. Leaving his sister’s bike unlocked next to the orchestra room, where his own bike was still sitting locked, the boy caught a ride home by car. On June 13, when a family member (not identified in the report) wanted to ride the girl’s bike to school and it couldn’t be found at their house, the mother learned it had been left at the high school. She drove there at 8 a.m. that day, but the girl’s bike was not there. The boy’s, however, was still there and still locked. At about 4 p.m. on June 16, the boy discovered his bike, too, had been stolen. The girl’s bike is described as an SE mountain bike, 28 inches, blue with white and pink details. It had been outfitted with two white side baskets, mirrors and a solar-powered strobe light mounted on its handle bars. The boy’s bike is a light gray Marin mountain bike.
Theft: 1200 block of Descanso Drive. A man reported that on May 12 he placed an order through Amazon.com for a Toto toilet, to be used in a bathroom renovation project. On May 28 he contacted the vendor through which the purchase had been made and was told the toilet had left their facility. The vendor suggested contacting Amazon directly and asking that a trace be placed on the delivery. Amazon subsequently tracked the delivery and said it had been left at his home’s front doorstep on May 19. The man’s building contractor confirmed he’d seen a large package on the doorstep that day, but because he didn’t know it was for the work he was doing, he’d left it alone.
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Burglary and auto theft: 5300 block of Ocean View Boulevard. A woman reported that at about 3 p.m. on June 10 she locked and secured her residence before leaving on vacation. When she returned at 12:30 a.m. on June 22, she noticed house lights were on and the front door was unlocked. Not wanting to enter the home alone, she went to a neighbor’s house and called the police. Responding deputies escorted her into her home, where they found that a kitchen window had been smashed and the house ransacked. Looking in the garage, the victim saw that both cars she had left there, a 2014 Mercedes and a 2014 BMW 328i, were gone. Their respective key sets were missing from a kitchen drawer. Shocked, the woman could identify some but not all of the items missing from the property at that time. But she could say that a 15-inch Mac laptop, a 26-inch screen Apple computer and unknown quantities of men’s watches, women’s jewelry and handbags were gone.
Grand theft: 400 block of Foothill Boulevard. A store manager reported that at about 3:10 p.m. on June 22 , after being notified by an employee that two suspicious-looking people appeared to be stealing packing materials, he went outside to investigate. He saw a delivery truck with a man sitting in the driver’s seat and a woman standing near the rear of the vehicle, which was stopped by the area where materials are stored. Realizing they were being observed, the man, described only as a Latino, drove the truck through the parking lot. The woman — described as Latina, 25 to 30 years old, 5 feet 4 and 160 pounds — followed on foot. She got into the truck and it was driven westbound on Foothill Boulevard and out of view. The store manager reported that the pair got a way with two bales of cardboard, 70 plastic milk crates, 100 plastic bread trays and 20 plastic produce crates.
June 23
Vandalism: 900 block of Bigbriar Way. A woman reported that at around noon that day, while she was downstairs at the house, she heard a loud noise coming from upstairs. She didn’t investigate it further at the time, but at about 6 p.m. she was in an upstairs bedroom when she noticed a 2-inch crack in a window and found a BB pellet embedded in it.
June 25
Petty theft: 700 block of Foothill Boulevard. Responding to a burglar alarm call, a deputy learned from a business owner that a video surveillance camera revealed that around 4:30 a.m. a vehicle, possibly a Lexus, drove slowly around his building. Moments later, a male, about 18 to 25 years old, thin, wearing a hooded sweatshirt with “UA” printed on the front, approached the camera and turned it away from himself. The owner discovered that a 50-inch Samsung flat screen television had been stolen from the business’ open patio.
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Carol Cormaci, carol.cormaci@latimes.com
Twitter: @CarolCormaci
