Crime Report: Burglar leaves evidence of another crime at scene; dine and dash in city’s Town Center
Nov. 20
Vandalism: 4700 block of La Cañada Boulevard. A woman reported sometime between 8 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. that day, someone smashed two areas of plumbing at her residence. Her housekeeper had told her the water to the house was not working, and when she went outside she found the frontyard flooded and water issuing from under a gate. On the side of the house, two damaged pipes were spewing water. The water district came and shut the water off. The victim said the pipes were fine earlier that morning, and that gardeners had been working at the house nextdoor. Deputies observed a broken tree limb on the ground near the pipes. A nearby hedge between the two homes looked spread out and disturbed, as if something or someone had fallen through it.
Nov. 21
Burglary, residence: 200 block of Baptiste Way. A man and his wife returned home from a funeral at around 8 p.m. and noticed a glass door had been smashed and the bedrooms ransacked. Surveillance footage showed three men in dark clothing exiting the property at 7:37 p.m., entering a vehicle on the north side of the street and driving off eastbound on Baptiste. The security system indicated not all the room’s motion sensors were triggered during the incident. Deputies observed a small, teal-colored Tiffany & Co. bag containing a gold necklace with a small gold heart by the outer gate. The victim said the necklace did not belong to him, leading deputies to believe it may have come from the scene of another crime. The homeowners were not sure if anything was taken during the incident.
Vandalism: 4800 block of Grand Avenue. A man told deputies he and his wife were reviewing their Ring video doorbell camera footage from the day before and saw that at 6:52 p.m. two unknown male adults walked up onto their driveway. One man wore a black balaclava, thick blue jacket and black pants with dark-colored gloves and a backpack. The other wore pants and a dark hooded sweatshirt, which he used to cover his face. The first suspect stopped in front of the camera, stepped up on a retaining wall and did something to the camera that caused it to stop recording. The incident occurred while the homeowners were in the house. Deputies observed a white Ring camera in a nearby raised dirt planter with a damaged cord. The mounting bracket was also damaged.
Petty theft: 2100 block of La Cañada Crest Drive. A man reported sometime between 4:23 p.m. on Nov. 16 and 5:30 a.m. on Nov. 18 someone stole a package containing a steering wheel from his front doorstep. He’d been out of town when the package was delivered and noticed on his arrival it wasn’t there.
Nov. 25
Defrauding an innkeeper: 900 block of Foothill Boulevard. A waiter told deputies he’d waited on a party of 12 at the steakhouse restaurant where he works sometime around 8:30 p.m. The diner said they were a family celebrating a younger woman’s birthday and had made a reservation. Throughout the dinner, the group was rowdy and one male patron was “quite intoxicated.” They expressed dissatisfaction with some of the service throughout the evening. When it came time to pay, they split the bill into several smaller bills, with some in the party using cash to pay and one person using a card. At the end of the transactions, only seven meals had been paid for. The waiter confronted the group outside the restaurant, but half the party had already left. The two people he was talking to got into a gray Honda Civic and began to leave the area. The waiter chased them on foot to the nearby Target store, and the white male driver said the outstanding bill wasn’t his problem. The waiter admitted it was unclear to whom the five unpaid meals belonged.
Compiled by Sara Cardine
Twitter: @SaraCardine
