Crime Report: Vandalism, hate incident reported at La Crescenta Walgreens

La Cañada Flintridge

Feb. 9

Reasonable cause arrest-burglary; possession of marijuana: Foothill Boulevard at Alta Canyada Road. Shortly before noon on Monday, Feb. 9, a deputy pulled over a white Mazda after observing it as it traveled south on Angeles Crest Highway, then turned west on Foothill Boulevard. The deputy expected to warn or cite the driver, Long Beach resident Sean Earl Walker, for lane infractions. Smelling fresh marijuana after the stop was made, the deputy conducted a search and a warrant check. He learned Walker was on parole for burglary. In the car he found a pair of black “Mechanics” brand gloves and a backpack containing a plastic bag of loose coins. A bag containing marijuana was in one of the suspect’s pants pockets. The deputy believed Walker was in the area for the purpose of committing a burglary. Walker was arrested and his car was impounded.

Feb. 11

Petty theft/shoplifting: Ralphs, 521 Foothill Blvd. Two store employees reported that at about 1 p.m. two white women in their early 20s entered the store and walked past where one of the employees stood in the produce aisle. One of the women returned and asked him where the bananas were. He deemed it an odd question, since he was standing in front of a display of the fruit. At that time, he noticed the woman he’d seen her with earlier pushing a shopping cart full of Red Bull energy drinks out the door without paying for them. He called out to her to bring them back, but she and the her accomplice both ran to a waiting gray, four-door 2013 Toyota Corolla with a male behind the wheel. The first employee called for assistance from one of his work colleagues and they both followed the women into the parking lot. The women paused to put the stolen Red Bull containers in the trunk of the car, ignoring the demands of the employees to return them. One of the employees captured a photo of the car’s license plate before it took off. Deputies traced it to a home in La Crescenta, where 15 minutes later a woman answered the door and told them her son owned the car but she didn’t know where he was or when he might return home.

Feb. 12

Grand theft: 3900 block of Madison Road. A woman reported that sometime when she was out of town, between 8 a.m. on Jan. 25 and 2 p.m. on Feb. 11, someone removed a two-piece jewelry set that included a 14-karat gold bracelet and necklace featuring a palm tree with 2.25 carats in diamonds that had sentimental value to her. Also missing was a white gold choker set with crystal. The jewelry items had been taken from the master closet. The house has an alarm system that was activated when no one was there. The victim’s personal assistant had the key to her home. He disabled the alarm from 8:15 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. on Feb. 4 to allow a cleaning crew in to work. When the four-person crew left, he reset the alarm. No signs of forced entry to the property were found.

Feb. 13

Residential burglary: 500 block of Meadowview Drive. A woman said she left her house at 12:30 p.m. after setting the alarm system to “armed to stay” so that her dog could move freely throughout the interior without setting off the alarm. When her husband returned home around 6 p.m., he called her to say the sliding-glass door in the master bedroom had been smashed and several rooms had been ransacked. Taken were a floor safe, a handgun, passports, a savings bond, a leather jewelry case, miscellaneous costume jewelry, a pair of white gold loop earrings set with diamonds, a 1920s white gold bracelet with diamonds in a floral pattern, a 1950s wristwatch with diamonds around its face and a silver band, a gold bracelet with inset of rubies and diamonds and a matching pair of earrings. A responding deputy noticed drag marks in the driveway that might have indicated the burglar(s) dragged the safe to a waiting vehicle.

Feb. 14

Residential burglary: 1900 block of Lombardy Drive. A man reported that at 11 a.m. he’d left several documents and bank checks on the seat of his car, parked in his garage, having moved them from inside the house so they wouldn’t be in the way of his housekeeper. The car’s doors were unlocked, as was the garage. When he returned to the car at 2:30 p.m., the checks were missing. There were no signs of forced entry. The resident did not believe his housekeeper had anything to do with the theft, as she has worked for him for several years without incident.

Vandalism and petty theft: 200 block of Starlane Drive. Two residents of the house reported that someone had pried open their locked mailbox sometime between 9 a.m. on Feb. 13 and 10 a.m. on Feb. 14. A magazine had been left behind, but there was no other mail in the box when the victims looked inside, leading them to believe that items had been stolen. The responding deputy advised them to check credit card statements and notify their credit card companies of potential fraudulent use.

Feb. 17

Residential burglary and identity theft: 1000 block of Flintridge Avenue. A woman reported that she left her house locked at 6 a.m. on Feb. 14. When she returned at around 6 p.m. on Feb. 16 she didn’t notice any signs of forced entry, but could tell that her house had been burglarized. Items that had been in a box in her hallway had been scattered about the floor. She then noticed that her hall closet as well as closets in the spare and master bedrooms had been ransacked. While she is certain that several handbags were taken, the ones she could immediately identify for sheriff’s deputies were a brown leather Michael Kors purse and a black leather Ferragamo bag. Also missing was a rolling black nylon carry-on luggage bag. The woman further reported that on Feb. 16 she received a call from a credit card company her husband does business with informing her that someone was possibly fraudulently using the account. She said her husband was out of the country and had not made the charges in question.

La Crescenta/Montrose

Feb. 11

Identity theft: 3000 block of Orange Avenue, La Crescenta. A man reported that someone had used his name and personal information to open an account with Country Door Inspirations, from which he received a statement in the mail. The bill indicated that furniture had been ordered on Jan. 14 for delivery to a Grand Terrace, Calif. address that was redacted from the sheriff’s report. The victim reported that he called Country Door Inspirations and told them he’d never opened the account, nor had he authorized anyone else to do so. He was advised to make a police report. He also contacted the three credit bureaus to place a fraud alert on his account.

Feb. 12

Identity theft: 4300 block of Ocean View Boulevard. A man reported that someone used his personal information to open credit accounts with American Express and Office Depot, and had attempted to open a Walmart account. He learned about the identity thefts after receiving letters from all three companies involved.

Fraudulent use of access card information: 2626 Foothill Blvd. An attorney for Catalina Structured Funding reported on the behalf of his client that someone had used the company’s American Express and Capital One credit cards to make online purchases. The company had hired someone to provide notary services and that company had outsourced the job to another notary, in Florida, and it was believed that third party had made the fraudulent charges.

Feb. 15

Vandalism, auto: 2100 block of Crescent Avenue, Montrose. A man reported that his wife had left their 2014 Ford Explorer parked at the curb at noon on Feb. 13. When he went to the vehicle at 6 p.m. on Feb. 14 he noticed that the third-row passenger side window had been broken by someone.

Feb. 16

Vandalism, hate incident: 3001 Foothill Blvd., La Crescenta. A shift supervisor at Walgreens said that sometime between 7:30 p.m. Feb. 11 and 10:20 a.m. Feb. 16 someone had entered the men’s restroom at the store and drawn a swastika with the words “white power” above the symbol and the numbers “666” beneath it on a bathroom stall. Bags of infant diapers had also been torn open and their contents left on the bathroom floor. By the time a responding deputy visited the store, the marks and the diapers had been cleaned up and no damages were observed.

Grand theft: 3000 block of Foothill Boulevard. A man who repossesses vehicles for a living and stores them on a lot adjacent to CV Tow reported that sometime between 4:30 p.m. Feb. 13 and 2 p.m. Feb. 16, someone stole 11 sets of keys from two lockboxes that are installed on an exterior wall of CV Tow. Taken were keys to one Mercedes, two BMWs, one Lexus and one Mitsubishi; six sets of keys belonging to miscellaneous other vehicles were also missing. The victim said six of the vehicles whose keys were taken were still sitting in the lot; the other five missing sets of keys belonged to vehicles he no longer has. One lockbox was damaged during the crime.