Crescenta Valley Crime: Burglary reported at GameStop

La Cañada

June 4

Burglary, vehicle: 4300 block of Commonwealth Avenue. A man visiting from Brazil reported that, sometime between 1 and 7:30 a.m. that morning, someone had smashed the driver’s side window of his locked Alamo rental van and stolen the portable GPS, belonging to the rental company, from the dashboard. No witnesses to the incident could be located.

June 5

Possession of codeine, methamphetamine; unlawful possession of ammunition: Foothill Boulevard at Indianola Avenue. At 3:18 p.m., an officer on patrol saw a white Cadillac with blacked-out tail lights and a crack in the windshield, and conducted a traffic stop. The driver, a man in his 40s, was found to be on active parole for domestic violence and had an outstanding warrant. The passenger, also in his 40s, was also found to have an outstanding warrant, and was on parole for possession of a controlled substance. A search of the vehicle turned up codeine, meth, at least one bullet and an IRS letter. The men were booked at the sheriff’s station, and the car was left legally parked.

La Crescenta

June 4

Burglary, vehicle: 3100 block of Prospect Avenue. A man awoke at 4:30 a.m. to the sound of his vehicle alarm going off. When he went out to check on it, he noticed the driver’s side window had been smashed and the interior of his locked car had been ransacked. Nothing appeared to have been taken, and a search of the area for witnesses returned nothing.

Burglary, residence: 5800 block of Freeman Avenue. A man who left his home around 11 a.m. returned at 6:30 p.m. to find a panel on the bottom left side of his front door had been cracked and was lying inside the house, while the door remained closed and locked. After deputies determined no suspects were in the house, the victim entered to discover two laptops had been taken from a room he used as a home office. The master bedroom had been ransacked, but nothing appeared to be missing at first glance. The suspect was thought to have entered and exited through the hole in the door. Neighbors did not answer their doors in the search for a witness, and fingerprints were ordered.

June 5

Burglary, commercial: 2600 block of Foothill Boulevard. Police were contacted by GameStop, where an employee reported that two days earlier, he’d received a phone call from someone identifying themselves as an employee. The caller was requesting a store merchandise transfer to a branch in Duarte, a common practice, the victim said. The caller then said that, because there was no manager on duty, another employee would be arriving to pick up the items. At 3:30 p.m. that day, a man came into the store and was given two Google Nexus tablets and two hand-held Nintendo devices before leaving. Shortly thereafter, the employee called the Duarte store to confirm the transfer and was told a request had never been made. The victim deduced that the suspect was a former employee familiar with the process, and told police he could identify the suspect if he saw him again.

June 9

Petty theft, bicycle: 2900 Fairmount Avenue. A woman reported that, sometime between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m., her bicycle was stolen from an unsecured area in the underground parking structure of her apartment complex. She was alerted to the theft when her mom called her and told her it was missing. A video camera was found in the area, but the building manager could not be reached.

Montrose

June 6

Vandalism, vehicle: 2200 Florencita Avenue. A man reported that, sometime between 10:30 p.m. and 12:30 a.m., someone had damaged his car by pouring an unknown chemical on it while it was parked across from his apartment. Police determined the vehicle had been smeared with paint remover, as paint was coming off from the entire vehicle. The victim said neither he nor his girlfriend had any known enemies. An attempt to find witnesses returned no results, and no surveillance of the area could be located.

-- Compiled by Sara Cardine, sara.cardine@latimes.com

Follow on Twitter: @SaraCardine.