Crime Report: Someone absconds with collection basket following La Cañada church service

March 20

Mail theft: 1400 block of Sugar Loaf Drive. A man reported several pieces of mail had been stolen from his curbside mailbox that day. When he reviewed his security camera’s video surveillance he saw that a dark gray truck drove past his house. He could also see in the footage that his mailbox was wide open and empty, but he did not see someone actually take the mail.

March 22

Grand theft, patio furniture: 1500 block of Foothill Boulevard. For the fifth time since Dec. 22, 2017, the same retailer reported having patio furniture stolen from a locked, gated enclosure overnight. The most recent incident took place between 6 p.m. March 21 and 7 a.m. March 22, and involved the theft of a five-piece wicker patio set and a 4-piece metal set. The store manager says that, at closing, the patio furnishings are secured behind a gate. On March 22, when he discovered items were missing again, he walked along the property’s fence abutting Indiana Street and saw a red seat cushion and muddy footprints in the planter beds. He said the business has no alarm system.

March 23

Burglary, vehicle: 900 block of Coral Way. A woman who left her locked 2017 Honda Pilot parked at her residence at about 8:30 p.m. on March 22 received a text alert at about 7:30 a.m. the next day notifying her that there had been fraudulent use of one of her credit cards. She went out to her SUV to find that the left rear passenger window had been shattered and her leather Marc Jacobs purse, which she’d left on the floor behind the driver’s seat, was gone. Taken with the purse was a Louis Vuitton wallet containing miscellaneous credit cards, a driver’s license and health insurance cards.

Vehicle tampering: 5500 block of Alta Canyada Road. A Latino man, described as being about 30 to 35 years old, 6 feet 1 or 2 and about 250 pounds, was seen testing the door handles on a couple’s 2008 Cadillac Escalade, shortly after someone rang their front doorbell. When one of the residents yelled at the man and he realized he’d been seen, he stepped away from the Escalade and into an older model white Chevy pick-up truck, which was then driven southbound on Alta Canyada and out of view.

Petty theft: 200 block of Foothill Boulevard. A volunteer in charge of collecting donations at church services reported that on March 22, when he finished collecting at about 7:30 p.m., he set the collection basket on a piano in the chapel. At the time, he recalled, there were a few volunteers and four nonvolunteers still in the chapel. The man left the room to store some items upstairs, then returned at about 8:30 p.m. to find the chapel empty and the basket containing the cash missing.