Crime Report: Secret room targeted in home burglary, safe and its contents taken from it

Sept. 17

Petty theft: 1900 block of Foothill Boulevard (CC-YMCA). A man who left items in a locker at about 10:30 a.m. returned to it at noon to find the padlock on it had been bent. When he opened the locker, he discovered his stainless steel watch and some currency had been stolen from it.

Sept. 18

Identity theft: 4800 block of Hill Street. After receiving a second call within a week from a debt collection agency inquiring about wireless carrier accounts she’d never opened, a woman checked her credit report to discover someone had fraudulently opened two such accounts in her name.

Sept. 20

Burglary: 800 block of Lynnhaven Lane. A housekeeper working at the residence heard a break-in taking place at about 11:30 a.m. She investigated and encountered two Latinos, approximately 13 to 15 years old, standing in the kitchen. When they saw her they took off, running through the house and exiting through the front door, then climbing into a waiting car driven by a third suspect. The housekeeper called her employer, who returned home immediately to find shattered panels on two French doors and a shattered kitchen window. Nothing appeared to be missing.

Burglary: 1100 block of Sheraton Drive. A woman who returned home at about 6:35 p.m. found the garage door, which had been left secured just before 8 o’clock that morning, open. She entered the house after unlocking a side door to see that several rugs had been either moved or were missing entirely. In the master bedroom she found all the dresser drawers open and the contents of the walk-in master closet were strewn around. A door in that closet leading to a secret room where their floor safe and other valuables were kept was open. The safe was gone and along with it, two passports, four Social Security cards, miscellaneous jewelry items, currency and documents. The woman said no one outside of the family knew of the hidden room except for workers they’d recently hired to install laminate flooring there.

Sept. 21

Identity theft: 4200 block La Tour Way. A man reported discovering someone had fraudulently opened an account in his name and made a charge to it in April 2016.

Sept. 24

Theft by false pretenses: 2100 block La Cañada Crest Drive. A man reported falling for a scam wherein someone claiming to be a Southern California Edison representative called him on his cellphone and demanded immediate payment on his account or risk having his electricity shut off. Despite his protests that he’d already made a payment to his account this month, the bogus caller directed him to the closest 7-Eleven where he was to buy a Green Dot “Money Pak” card in an amount not specified in the crime report. He followed those directions, with the suspect staying on the phone with him throughout. After purchasing the card, the victim was directed to read a 14-digit number off the back of it in order to pay his SCE bill. He realized after completing the phone call that he had been scammed.

Petty theft: 4700 block of Lasheart Drive. Sometime between 1:10 p.m. on Sept. 23 and 9:30 a.m. Sept. 24, someone entered an unlocked 2011 Ford Edge that had been left parked in a driveway and stole a pocket knife, a Garmin GPS, two Apple Lightning chargers, an Apple iPad, currency and an eyeglass case.

Grand theft: 5000 block of Gould Avenue. A man and a woman reported thefts from their respective cars that had been left parked at the top of their driveway overnight. Both believed they had locked their vehicles before entering the home. Taken from one was a vinyl bag, a Ping-Pong paddle, a Head canvas bag, two Head tennis rackets and two pairs of sunglasses. A briefcase was taken from the other car.