Crime Report: Resident spots burglary suspects running from neighbor’s home

La Cañada Flintridge

Oct. 26

Vandalism, vehicle: 1700 block of Foothill Boulevard. At around 6:30 p.m., a woman parked her 2012 Jeep SUV in a dedicated parking lot pace. When she returned to the vehicle at around 12:30 p.m., she noticed a scratch from the taillight to the end of the front passenger door.

Oct. 29

Grand theft, vehicle: 4900 block of Vineta Avenue. A man told deputies sometime between 11:30 a.m. and noon that day, someone took several motorized gardening tools from the open bed of his 1995 Toyota Tacoma. A gardener, he was working on a client’s backyard when he returned to the vehicle and noticeda lawn mower, weed eater, hedge trimmer and chainsaw had been taken.

Burglary, residence: 4200 block of Woodleigh Lane. A witness told deputies at around 8:50 p.m., he heard a loud thump coming from his neighbors’ house. He thought it odd, because they were away on vacation. The man approached the house and saw two males running out of the front door of a residence and enter a dark colored, two-door Thunderbird parked nearby before speeding south on Woodleigh and turning east onto Berkshire Avenue.

A person identified as a house sitter met deputies at the residence. There, they observed a set of French doors in the rear of the house had been smashed open. Nothing appeared to have been disturbed or misplaced, except a yellow pillow found outside by the broken door, determined to be the point of entry.

The neighbor’s video surveillance showed a grainy picture of three male figures running toward the vehicle.

La Crescenta

Oct. 20

Embezzled vehicle: 2600 block of Foothill Boulevard. At around 4 p.m., an informant called the sheriff’s department to report the presence of a vehicle that had been reported embezzled by a business the day before. When deputies arrived, the informant pointed out to them a 2016 Ford Festiva with paper plates and a 47-year-old Korean man wearing a blue shirt and jeans.

The man was detained for questioning and identified himself as an employee of the business that owned the vehicle. He admitted he hadn’t informed his employers of his decision not to return the car. The man was arrested and booked at the Crescenta Valley Sheriff’s Station, and the vehicle was returned.

Oct. 30

Shoplifting: 2675 Foothill Boulevard. An employees of Ralphs grocery store told deputies that at around 6:50 p.m. that day he saw an Hispanic male in his 20s, about 5 feet 4 inches, weighing 160 pounds and with a shaved head, accompanied by a black male in his 20s, about 5 feet 6 inches and weighing 140 pounds, also with a shaved head, enter the store and walk toward the alcoholic beverages aisle.

The employee said the pair seemed to be acting suspiciously, so she watched them from the registers. She saw them grab four bottles of Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Honey whiskey from a top shelf and walk toward the dairy section in the back of the store.

As the employee waited by one of the doors, she saw them run from an aisle out the door, observing one bottle in their possession. A few minutes later she got a phone call informing her of broken glass bottles in the aisles the men had run from. In the aisle there was spilled liquid and a strong smell of alcohol. She told deputies she believed the suspects had dropped them before exiting the store.

Nov. 1

Burglary, residence: 3100 block of Altura Avenue. A man reported that sometime between Oct. 11 and Oct. 25, someone entered his locked garage and stole a pair of car speakers, two garden trimmers and a wrench.

The man said he noticed the missing speakers when he entered the garage and attempted to turn on the stereo. When asked if he knew who might have committed the act, he told deputies that on Oct. 27 at 7 p.m. he entered his garage at a time he was supposed to have been at work and surprised a man he identified as a friend of his roommate. When he confronted the man about why he was there, the man didn’t reply but immediately left the location.

Montrose

Oct. 30

Burglary, vehicle: 4300 block of Ocean View Boulevard. A man reported that sometime between 7 p.m. the night before and 7 a.m. that day, someone entered his unlocked 2002 Jeep Wrangler via the driver’s side door and stole an automotive scanner from the front seat and a winch controller from a passenger’s side rear storage area.

When the victim returned to his vehicle he saw his driver’s side front door was open and found a metal clip from a detached gate opener on his driver’s side rear tire. He said the clip appeared to be from a gate opener given to residence at his apartment complex. The vehicle was not damaged during the incident.

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Sara Cardine, sara.cardine@latimes.com

Twitter: @SaraCardine