Crime Report: Credit card skimmer, apparently planted Sunday, found on a pump at La Cañada gas station next morning
Oct. 2
Theft from credit card: 2200 block Canalda Drive. A man reported that someone used his Wells Fargo credit card account numbers to make online purchases from two different businesses on Sept. 20 and 21. He said he did not authorize the purchases, which were shipped to a different address, and that he had been in sole possession of his card throughout.
Oct. 3
Theft by false pretenses: 4400 block of St. Francis Place. A woman reported that she contacted a man in mid-September to inquire about property in Sun Valley that he advertised for rent. She was asked to fill out an application and, some days later, was told by the man that he wanted to rent the property to her, but that she first had to deposit funds (amount unspecified in the crime report) into a Bank of America account for which he provided her the routing numbers. Since following his instructions she has not received the key to the property and several calls she has placed to the man have not been answered.
Oct. 4
Mail theft: 4500 block of Indiana Avenue. A man placed four pieces of outgoing mail, each containing a check, in his mailbox at about 8:30 p.m. Oct. 3. At 6:30 a.m. on Oct. 4, he looked in the mailbox before he left for work and found it empty.
Burglary: 800 block of Greenridge Drive. A man said he locked up his residence at about 6:35 p.m. to go out to dinner. About three hours later, while at a restaurant, he received a call from his alarm company notifying him that the house alarm system had been activated. A double-paned glass sliding door was found smashed, but it appeared nothing inside the home was disturbed. Outside, a surveillance camera in the backyard had been tilted upward, toward the sky. The deputy who took the report surmised the burglar was scared off by the sound of the alarm.
Oct. 5
Burglary: 600 block of Foothill Boulevard. A retail store’s loss prevention officer reported that two male adults and one female adult were seen leaving the store carrying a backpack and three handbags that they’d removed from display, and from which they’d cut security tags. After exiting the store, the three got into a silver Hyundai.
Oct. 9
Burglary: 900 block of Chehalem Road. A woman left her home locked and the alarm set at about 8:30 a.m. About two hours later she received notification from her alarm company that the house alarm had been activated. When she arrived home, deputies were already on scene, having also received the alarm call. The house had been ransacked. The glass in a kitchen door had been shattered, as had the living room sliding glass door. Inside, they found two pillowcases had been removed from a bed and stuffed with costume jewelry and home decor items, then left behind by the intruder(s).
Use of a scanning device (credit card reader) and vandalism of a gas pump: 600 block of Foothill Boulevard (Chevron station). A store manager reported that the tamper-proof sticker on the station’s pump No. 6 had been cut and the cabinet was partially open. An inspection by a technician on site that day revealed that a credit card reader had been placed in the cabinet to store and possibly transmit all credit cards that had been used at that pump. The store manager explained to a sheriff’s deputy that daily, generally between about 7:30 and 8:30 a.m., an employee inspects all the gas pumps for signs of vandalism. The last time all the pumps were known to have been secure was at 7 a.m. on Sunday, Oct. 8. The vandalism to pump No. 6 was discovered at about 8:40 a.m. on Monday, Oct. 9.
Twitter: @CarolCormaci
