Crime Report: Teen athlete reports possible pedophile sought video of her body after offering her a scholarship

Oct. 1

Fraud by false pretense: 4300 block of Beulah Drive. A woman was scammed into buying 14 Google Play gift cards and providing their access codes to a man claiming to be a policeman. The suspect had “spoofed” her husband’s cellphone number so she thought she was answering a call from her husband. Instead, it was the suspect who said he had her husband in custody because he owed money to the IRS. She complied with the order to purchase the cards and gave the suspect the numbers. Afterward, she reached her husband at his office and learned he’d never been detained and did not owe money to the IRS.

Oct. 2

Vehicle burglary, theft by access card: 4500 block Alta Canyada Road. Sometime between 9 p.m. Oct. 1 and 7:30 a.m. Oct. 2, someone smashed open the driver’s side front window of a woman’s 2015 Toyota Prius and stole her purse containing, among several other items, a credit card and some debit cards. The victim learned fraudulent charges had been made using her cards between 6 and 7 a.m. that day in the City of Commerce and Pico Rivera.

Theft: 2100 block of Foothill Boulevard. A man reported someone stole his new laptop computer, which he said he’d left sitting on a counter inside the FedEx office while he stepped about 50 feet away to use in-store computers, then made a purchase at a cash register. A store employee said she saw the man enter the store, but did not see him carrying a laptop. The victim, according to the report, claimed that “the people who stole it want secret information that is on it and they would give it back after they are done.”

Oct. 4

Vehicle tampering: 4800 block of Hill Street. A woman reported someone entered her 2000 Honda Odyssey, which she’d left parked on the street in front of her home between 6:30 p.m. Oct. 3 and 7:15 a.m. Oct. 4. Items were scattered around the interior of the car, but it didn’t appear anything had been stolen. She was unsure whether or not she’d left it locked the night before.

Oct. 5

Petty theft: 1600 block Alta Park Lane. A backpack containing items including a first aid kit, Swiss army knife, pocket knife, emergency beacon and other related goods was stolen out of an unlocked horse trailer. Video surveillance showed a man at about 5:30 a.m. trying to get into a Lexus parked at the same site, before disappearing behind the horse trailer. The suspect, carrying a flashlight, was wearing a light-colored shirt and jacket, dark pants and a light-colored baseball cap. A couple of items that had also been in the horse trailer were left strewn on the victims’ lawn.

Threatening/annoying phone calls: 2100 block of Earnslow Drive. A young female athlete who attends a Pasadena school reported along with her father that over a period of time beginning Sept. 28, she’d been contacted via text/email messages by a man saying his name was Quincy Smith and claiming to be a boys’ soccer coach at a Wisconsin college. The suspect said he’d been referred to her by her coach and he wanted to offer her a partial scholarship. He sent her a link to fill out a form and, on Oct. 1, asked her for a video of her body, particularly of the back of her knees, so he could see there were no surgery scars there. He included with that message a sample video of a scantily clad female. The victim said the video made her feel uneasy, so she did not respond. She spoke to her coach, who denied having recommended her to anyone. The victim’s father then called the Wisconsin college and asked if there was a Quincy Smith there, either as a coach or other faculty member and was told there was not. The victim and her father are concerned the suspect is a child predator but have no idea who it is.