FATHER’S DAY IS SUNDAY, JUNE 15TH 

SATURDAY, JUNE 14, 2014 

VOLUME 8 NO. 24 

PASADENA SOLDIER 
KILLED IN AFGHANISTAN 

TWO SUSPECTS ARRESTED IN VALERO GAS 
STATION BREAK IN 


Fast action by the Sierra Madre Police Department and enhanced security at 
the Valero Gas Station at Baldwin and Sierra Madre Blvd. led to the capture 
and arrest of two men suspected of a variety of criminal acts. 

At 2:40 AM Sierra Madre Police Officers responded to an alarm call at the 
Valero Gas Station 4 N. Baldwin Ave. and quickly detained to suspects who 
were installing a skimming device to capture credit card numbers in the gas 
pumps. Edvard Martirosyan 27 and Aram Manasaryan 22, both residents 
of Glendale, were taken into custody without incident. There were other 
skimming devices, laptop computers, counterfeit credit cards, and other tools 
used to compromise the gas pumps inside the suspects’ vehicle. This is the 
second incident at the Valero Station within two weeks. 

Police Chief Larry 
Giannone said” the 
Officers quick response 
to the alarm call 
allowed us to catch 
the suspects in the 
act. Officers were on 
scene within 1 minute 
of being dispatched to 
the call and caught the 
suspects as they were 
attempting to leave”. 
Chief Giannone also 
urges anyone that has 
used a credit or debit 
card from May 22nd 
to June 6th at the Valero Gas Station to monitor their bank statements for any 
unusual activity just to be on the safe side. “At this point in the investigation we 
cannot be 100% certain that some personal information was not captured”. 

Martirosyan and Manasaryan were booked at the Pasadena Police Dept. Jail 
on multiple felony charges and then were transferred into Federal Custody and 
taken to the Metropolitan Detention Center. Martirosyan also has a pending 
case with Secret Service and was out on bond at the time of his early morning 
arrest. Each man was held with a $500,000 bond. The U.S. Secret Service has 
agreed to take the lead in the investigation. 

As admonished by the Police earlier this month, residents who made purchases 
with credit and/or debit cards at Valero should monitor their accounts carefully. 


Edvard Martirosyan 

 Scott Studenmund, 24, was a graduated from Flintridge 
Preparatory School in La Cañada Flintridge. Story on 
page 4 

SIERRA MADRE 
CROWNED THE 
8TH SAFEST CITY IN 
CALIFORNIA 

Report issued by real estate industry leader Movoto, the work of 
the SMPD was recently validated. According to their ranking, 
Sierra Madre is one of the safest places to live in the entire state. 

Earlier this week they released the following report: 

 When it comes to laid back living, California is literally the 
Golden State. Eve-rybody knows that the vibe here is all about 
taking it easy—but did you ever wonder why? 

Sure, it might have something to do with the nearly perfect weather 
and con-stant sunshine. More than that, though, California is 
generally a pretty safe place to live, allowing us to relax. But which 
of the state’s fine places are the safest of them all? According to our 
latest analysis at the Movoto Real Es-tateBlog, here are the 10 
safest places in California: 

1. Town of Hillsborough 

2. City of Saratoga 

3. City of Laguna Woods 

4. City of Imperial 

5. Town of Moraga 

6. City of Rancho Santa Margarita 

7. City of Los Altos 

8. City of Sierra Madre 

9. City of Palos Verdes Estates 

10. Town of Danville 

What exactly makes these 10 communities so safe? 

In order to find these 10 safest places in California, we started by 
gathering a list of all of the places in the state with populations 
of 10,000 or more that pro-vided crime data to the FBI in 2012. 
That left us a grand total of 365 places. Then, we used the FBI’s 
latest Uniform Crime Report (2012) to research each of these 
places according to the following seven criteria, measuring each 
for crimes per 100,000 people: 

• Murder 

• Rape 

• Robbery 

• Assault 

• Burglary 

• Theft 

• Vehicle theft 

We divided these crimes into four distinct categories: 

• Murders 

• Violent crimes 

• Property crimes 

• Total crimes 

We then ranked each of our places with a score of one to 365 
according to each category, with one being the safest. Next, we 
weighted these scores so that murder, violent crime, and property 
crime each comprised 30 percent of the final score, while total crime 
made up 10 percent. We averaged these weighted rankings together 
for each place to get a Big Deal Score. The place with the lowest Big 
Deal Score was our safest place; in this case, Hillsborough. 

Aram Manasaryan 

“Angel On Duty!” That’s what it says on a sign 
outside Ann Tyler’s lovely apartment, where she’s 
lived since 1972, where our own George Maurer is 
her apartment manager. And, after spending the 
morning with her, I’m inclined to think SHE is the 
Angel who is on duty! This charming lady turned 
90 last October and celebrated by doing her second 
zipline run. Where was she? In Icy Strait Point, 
Alaska, located on Chichagof Island, 1.5 miles 
away from the Alaska town of Hoonah! To pin it 
down a little more for you, it’s a cruise ship stop 
between Juneau and Ketchikan. 

The Icy Strait Point folks advertise their zipline as 
being “the world’s largest,” 5,330 feet long, a 1,300 
foot vertical drop, 60 mph maximum speed, 300 
feet from the ground at the highest point (taller 
than the Empire State Building) and it’s a real fast 
1.5 minute ride with six cables shooting fearless 
zipliners down simultaneously! You’ve gotta be 
kidding, you’re saying! Nope, Ann Tyler did it 
and enjoyed every minute. But this was old news 
to her, she’s done it before in Alaska! Her son told 
her she had to go so he wouldn’t be scared. We 
won’t say who did the screaming, but it wasn’t 
Ann! 

Ann’s an inveterate world traveler, having taken 
twelve cruises with her son and his wife. She’s 
been four times to Alaska, all over Europe – 
Amsterdam, Russia, the Caribbean, Hawaii and 
plans are underway for a 2016 cruise to Antarctica! 

That’s not all Ann’s got going…she is currently 
President of the Priscilla Club, the oldest social 
club in Sierra Madre, which started in 1906. The 
Priscillas are ladies who meet monthly to visit 
and are involved with local charities. She’s the 
only Honorary Charter member of the Civic Club 
left, past President of the Women’s Club and 
she is a serious knitter, making chemo caps for 
our Veterans and working currently on a throw 
for them. She is also an usher at the Pasadena 
Playhouse. 

Ann was born in Long Beach and she and her 
family moved to Sierra Madre the day after the 
Long Beach earthquake in 1933, to join her aunt. 
Ann graduated from St. Rita’s, spent some time in 
Jr. College in Pasadena and married her husband, 
James Bryce Tyler, in 1941 when she was 17. They 
had been married 61 years when James passed 
away in 2002. Some of you may remember James 
was Fire Chief here for a while. Ann is related to 
the Collins family, long time residents of Sierra 
Madre. Ann’s mother was married on their front 
lawn. Ann and James had six children; their oldest 
died at just 3-1/2 and their daughter passed away 
at an early age, leaving three sons who came to live with Ann and James. 
She had 9 boys at the table! Having fed and put shoes on 9 growing boys 
was probably far more of an adventure than ziplining in Alaska at 90! 
Ann’s cruising buddy son, lives in Georgia and tells her he expects her 
to live to 100! Another son is a resident of West Covina, a third is in La 
Verne and one of her three nephews is in Azusa. 

Ann says that the changes she’s seen in her beloved Sierra Madre have 
been mostly for good, and it’s a delight to see many of contemporaries 
in town who are also over 90! Of course, kids all walked to school in her 
day and played outside till dark. Seems she was always the daring one, 
mentioning that she once walked across the dam to impress a boy! 

After reading Lauren Hillenbrand’s book, “Unbroken,” detailing Louis 
Zamperini’s World War II story of survival, resilience, and forgiveness, 
she would really like to meet him. Ann was reminded of another of our 
local authors, Fay Angus, who has also written of surviving a Japanese 
prison camp in Yangchow, China during World War II (see Fay’s book, 
“The White Pagoda”). 

A cockatiel added his thoughts to our conversation from time to time as he 
watched from his cage close by and a tropical fish Ann won at the Women’s 
Club over a year ago is alive and well on the coffee table. Ann feels that she 
inspires people, which is why she is still among us. Her favorite job, which 
she started after she was 50, was working as a medical assistant, where she 
had opportunities to be a listening ear and a comforting hand to patients 
who needed someone to care. She practices yoga at the Senior Center and 
was gearing up to go to Bingo as I was saying goodbye. $2.60 is her biggest 
pot so far but the sky’s the limit for Ann Tyler, one of the busiest and nicest 
ladies you’ll meet! 

“What could be more beautiful than a dear lady growing wise with age? 
Every age can be enchanting, provided you live within it.” Brigitte Bardot 

WALKING SIERRA MADRE……The Social Side By Deanne Davis 

ZIPLINING AT 90