Crime Report: La Cañada businesses hit by thefts, incidents of vandalism

Feb. 28

Grand theft: 1500 block of Foothill Boulevard. Sometime between 6 p.m. Feb. 27 and 7:30 a.m. Feb. 28, someone entered a locked, gated patio and took a wrought iron bench, a wooden rocking chair, a black metal bistro-style dining set and a wicker patio set that had been on display there. The assistant store manager reported that he also discovered on subsequently checking the boulevard side of the business that someone had broken ceramic pots containing plants and left them strewn on the sidewalk.

Vandalism: 1200 block of Foothill Boulevard. A volunteer pastor at a church noticed several small holes in a stained glass window on the north side of one of the church’s campus buildings. He found pieces of broken glass in a planter beneath the window. Stepping inside a seldom-used classroom on the other side of the window, he found pieces of glass there as well. He said the last time he’d made an inspection of the building’s perimeter was around the first of the year.

Shoplifting: 2200 block of Foothill Boulevard. An employee observed the same woman, described only as being white, walk out of the store on two occasions, Feb. 17 and Feb. 22, with goods she had not paid for. Both times, she was seen getting into a black Ford Explorer and taking off. The second time, the employee was able to record the Explorer’s license plate number, which law enforcement traced to an address in La Cañada Flintridge. When a deputy investigating the matter went to that home address he found no one there. During her visits to the store, the woman allegedly took an Easter-themed wall decoration, two trays and a wreath.

March 3

Vandalism: 1300 block of Foothill Blvd. A woman reported that sometime between 5 p.m. March 2 and 10 a.m. March 3, someone etched letters on the upper left portion of an exterior door. A responding deputy found the letters “BPPXMBPP” etched there. Checking with a neighboring business, the deputy was shown video surveillance footage of a white male in his 20s, wearing a dark jacket and dark knit cap peering into a storefront. The suspect appears to become angry, pick up a flower planter, tip it over onto the sidewalk, then continue to look through the windows of other businesses, but it does not show him etching letters in a door.