SIMI VALLEY : Source of Threats to Woman Sought

Police are trying to find out who has been threatening to kill the assistant manager of a Simi Valley fast-food restaurant, who has been tormented since she fired an employee in March, according to court documents obtained Friday.

A search warrant filed with the Municipal Court says a trap was placed on the McDonald’s telephone at 2375 Tapo St. to try to trace the origin of more than a dozen calls threatening the life of Suzanne Schaefer, 28.

Last month former McDonald’s employee Carole Lynne Alberts, 52, was sentenced to 5 1/2 years in prison for trying to set Schaefer’s home on fire in March, the day after Alberts was fired for arguing with customers and talking to herself.

Threats to Schaefer by telephone and letter began almost immediately after the termination. However, Alberts could not have been responsible for all of them because at least four of the calls to the restaurant were made from a pay phone outside the McDonald’s while Alberts was incarcerated, the search warrant states.

Also, someone threw a brick through the window of Schaefer’s Simi Valley residence while Alberts was in jail, and a man wearing a black ski mask threw a brick at Schaefer’s car as she was driving to work last month.