Mountain Views News          Saturday, October 3, 2015

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Mountain Views-News Saturday, October 3, 2015 

THREE INTERESTING CASES HANDLED 

WITH EXCELLENCE BY OUR DETECTIVES BUREAU

MONROVIA POLICE BLOTTER

Following are the weekend’s highlighted issues and events. To see a complete 
listing of crimes reported, go to the City of Monrovia website and click on the 
crime mapping link. Sign up to follow us on Twitter for police notifications. 

Injury Traffic Collision On September 25 at 7:00 a.m., officers responded 
to a vehicle verses bicyclist traffic collision in the area of Myrtle and 
Colorado. The male juvenile was riding his bicycle west on the south 
sidewalk. A vehicle exiting the parking lot, pulled onto the street and 
broadsided the bicyclist. The bicyclist sustained a laceration on his face. 
He was treated by paramedics and transported to a hospital. 

Warrant – Suspect Arrested On September 25 at 8:09 a.m., an officer 
stopped a motorist for a vehicle code violation in the 800 block of West 
Colorado. Through investigation it was discovered the female had an 
outstanding warrant. She was cited for the vehicle code violation and 
taken into custody for the warrant. 

Warrant – Suspect Arrested On September 25 at 8:18 a.m., an officer 
stopped a motorist for a vehicle code violation in the 200 block of North 
Alta Vista. The investigation determined the subject had an outstanding 
warrant. The driver was cited for the vehicle code violation and arrested 
for the warrant. Residential Burglary On September 25 at 9:29 p.m., a 
residential burglary was reported in the 1600 block of Alamitas. The 
victims indicated they left their home that evening to eat dinner at about 
5:15 p.m. They returned home at about 9:30 p.m. and discovered their 
home was burglarized. The front door was forced open with a pry tool, 
and unknown suspect(s) took currency, a camera, and electronics. The 
investigation is continuing. 

Driving Under the Influence of Alcohol - Suspect Arrested On September 
26 at 2:27 a.m. a driver was stopped for unsafe speed in the 1800 block of 
South Myrtle. The investigation determined the subject was driving under 
the influence of alcohol. The subject was arrested and later released on a 
citation after sobering. 

Driving Under the Influence of Alcohol – Suspect Arrested On 
September 26 at 3:39 a.m., a driver was stopped for a stop sign violation 
in the area of Huntington and Shamrock. A subsequent investigation 
revealed the driver was driving under the influence of alcohol. The driver 
was arrested and later released on a citation after sobering. 

Vehicle Burglary On September 26 at 11:27 a.m., an officer was dispatched 
to the 200 block of Alta Vista regarding a vehicle burglary. The victim 
parked his vehicle on the street in front of his residence. Upon his return 
his sliding rear window was open. Stolen out of his vehicle was a laptop 
and backpack. The investigation is continuing. 

Receiving Stolen Property / Possession of Burglary Tools / Possess of a 
Controlled Substance / Possession of smoking Paraphernalia – Suspect 
Arrested On September 26 at 11:35 a.m., officers responded to the 200 
block of North Shamrock regarding a suspicious male subject. The officer 
recognized the subject from recent theft calls and burglary investigations. 
The subject was loading his vehicle and trailer with property. The subject 
did not have an answer to where, why and how he obtained a variety of 
expensive merchandise. The subsequent investigation revealed the subject 
was in possession of stolen property, illegal drugs and drug paraphernalia. 
The vehicle and trailer were stored. The investigation is continuing. 

Theft from a Vehicle On September 26 at 1:01 p.m., a resident called to 
report a theft in the 400 block of West Duarte. The victim’s purse was 
stolen out of her vehicle while she was at the coin car wash. She does not 
know how it occurred. The investigation is continuing. 

Dog Bite On September 26 at 11:14 p.m., a resident called to report he 
had been bitten by a neighbor’s dog in the 500 block of East Los Angeles. 
The victim was walking home along the front yard of his neighbor’s fence 
line, when his neighbor’s dog jumped up and bit the victim’s right arm. 
The victim suffered three puncture wounds as a result of the dog bite, 
and he was transported by ambulance to the hospital. The dog remained 
confined in his own yard during and after the incident occurred. The dog 
owner was identified and advised to keep his dog away from the fence line. 
Pasadena Humane Society was contacted and they will follow-up with all 
parties involved. 

Driving Under the Influence of Alcohol – Suspect Arrested On September 
27 at 1:29 a.m., a driver was stopped for unsafe speed. A subsequent 
investigation revealed the driver was driving under the influence of 
alcohol. The driver was arrested and taken into custody for driving under 
the Influence of alcohol. 

Commercial Burglary On September 27 at 3:55 a.m., officers responded to 
a business in the 300 block of West Huntington regarding a subject inside 
the business. The suspect entered the grocery store but did not see the 
reporting party. The reporting party called the police on his cell phone. 
Officers surrounded the building and with the help from Arcadia Police 
Department. The employee was rescued and the interior searched for the 
suspect with negative results. The suspect did gain entry into the store safe 
and stole approximately $60 to $80 dollars. The Investigation is continuing. 

Theft From a Vehicle September 28 at 9:05 a.m., a theft from a vehicle 
was reported at a residence in the 100 block of South Ivy Avenue. The 
victim left her vehicle parked and unlocked in front of her residence. 
When she returned to the vehicle, she noticed property had been stolen 
from the interior. Miscellaneous clothing and a briefcase was taken. The 
investigation is continuing. 

Attempted Murder – Suspects Arrested September 28 at 10:01 a.m., 
officers were dispatched to a residence in the 100 block of South Encinitas 
on the report of a stabbing that had just occurred. The victim had been 
in an altercation earlier with the brother of the suspect who stabbed him. 
The two brothers showed up at the victim’s residence and a physical fight 
ensued. During the fight, the victim was stabbed multiple times. The 
suspects fled on foot and containment of the area was established. One 
suspect was taken into custody near the original location. The victim was 
taken to a hospital, where he required surgery for his injuries. The second 
suspect has been located and arrested. 

Vehicle Burglary September 28 at 1:41 a.m., a vehicle burglary was 
reported in the 500 block of West Duarte Road. The victim left his vehicle 
to be repaired at an automotive repair shop on September 25. When he 
returned to the repair shop, he found tools had been stolen from a locked 
toolbox in the bed of his truck. The investigation is continuing. 

Petty Theft September 28 at 2:00 p.m., a petty theft was reported in the 400 
block of Genoa. The victim parked her vehicle in front of her apartment 
the night before. She returned at 8:00 a.m. and saw that one of her tires was 
stolen. The investigation is continuing. 

Vehicle Burglary September 28 at 6:26 p.m., an officer responded to a 
residence in the 200 block of West Palm regarding a vehicle burglary. The 
victim parked her vehicle on the street in front of her house at 5:00 p.m. 
and locked the doors. She then went into her house. She returned to her 
vehicle an hour and a half later and discovered a window was shattered 
and her briefcase containing miscellaneous papers had been taken. She 
immediately called the police. Officers searched the area, but did not 
locate a suspect. The investigation is continuing. 

Possession of Marijuana for Sales/Warrant – Suspect Arrested 
September 28 at 10:09 p.m., an officer on patrol in the 1400 block of South 
Mountain stopped a vehicle for failing to stop for a red light signal at an 
intersection. The officer approached the male driver and immediately 
smelled marijuana emitting from inside the vehicle. A computer check of 
the subject revealed the driver had a warrant for his arrest and was driving 
with a suspended license. A lawful search of the vehicle revealed several 
individually packaged bags of marijuana and evidence the driver was 
transporting the drugs for sales. He was arrested and taken into custody. 

Theft From a Vehicle September 29 at 11:48 a.m., a purse was reported 
stolen from a vehicle parked in the 500 block of South Mountain. The 
victim was picking up her daughter at the location. She parked her vehicle 
and left it for approximately five minutes, leaving her purse in the vehicle. 
When she returned, she saw a white pickup truck with tinted windows and 
no plates leaving from directly behind her vehicle. She entered her vehicle 
and saw her purse was missing. Officers later recovered her property in 
two separate locations after it had been discarded. The victim was missing 
cash and a debit card. The investigation is continuing. 

Theft From a Vehicle September 29 at 11:55 a.m., a victim of theft called 
police to report her purse was stolen out of her unlocked vehicle while 
she was inside a business in the 200 block of South Ivy Avenue. The 
investigation is continuing. 

Injury Hit and Run Collision/Driving Under the Influence – Suspect 
Arrested September 29 at 7:20 p.m., a Chevrolet Suburban was traveling 
west in the 400 block of West Colorado when it collided into a bicyclist who 
was also traveling westbound. The bicyclist fell off his bike and landed on 
the pavement, causing non-life-threatening injuries to his arms and legs. 
The bicyclist was wearing reflective, protective gear and his bike had the 
legal lighting equipment. The driver of the Suburban fled west on Colorado. 

 A witness called police and reported the license plate of the suspect 
vehicle. Officers responded to the registered owner’s house, where they 
located the vehicle and the driver outside the home in Monrovia. The 
driver was determined to be intoxicated. The driver was arrested for felony 
driving under the influence and hit and run.

Last week, I was briefed about three interesting cases that our 
Detectives Bureau handled superbly, and I wanted to share details 
related to each of those cases.

Burglaries, Vehicle Theft, and Receiving Stolen Property 

 On September 9, 2015, at 0805 hours, Monrovia officers were 
dispatched to the 100 block of Norumbega Drive regarding a subject 
asleep in a vehicle with the engine running. Upon arrival the officers 
and found a male adult who they recognized from prior contacts 
hunched over in a vehicle that matched the description of a vehicle 
used in a recent theft of tools. They woke the subject who exited 
and dropped drug paraphernalia. They detained the subject and 
discovered his vehicle was loaded with what appeared to be stolen 
tools. Officer recognized some of the items in the vehicle matched 
the description of the tools taken from the theft. The subject was 
arrested for being under the influence and suspicion of grand theft. 
The vehicle was towed to the station. During the booking process a 
card for a local storage location was located in the subject’s wallet.

 Detectives were notified of the arrest and wrote search warrants 
for the subject’s vehicle, home and storage locker. While serving 
the search warrant at the residence, a victim from a commercial 
burglary in Irwindale arrived at the residence claiming the suspect 
in our case may be the same suspect who broke into his business and 
stole his Snap-on tool box loaded with tools valued over $30,000.00. 
Detectives took his information and continued with the search. 
During the search of the location numerous empty tools bags were 
recovered and loose tools. The tools described from the Irwindale 
case were not recovered at the location. 

 The storage locker turned out to belong to a different person, so 
that search was not conducted. Later, a photograph of the suspect 
we had in custody was shown to the storage facilities manager who 
identified the suspect as having a different storage locker under 
a different name. A revised search warrant was obtained, signed 
and served. The storage locker was filled from floor to ceiling with 
miscellaneous tools. Along the east wall, detectives noticed a large 
black Snap-on tool box which was locked. Detectives contacted the 
victim from the Irwindale case and he brought a key to the tool box, 
which unlocked it, and in one of the drawers there were receipts in 
the victim’s name for the purchase of the tools, and tool box. 

 The search warrant was served on the vehicle which also contained 
numerous tools. Some of the tools in the vehicle were tools taken 
from several cases over the past week in Monrovia. To date, 5 cases 
have been identified which include cases from Monrovia, Glendora 
and San Diego. The investigation is continuing and detectives will 
be contacting other agencies in an attempt to locate additional 
victims.

Elderly Scams

 Over the past year there have been several cases where elderly 
citizens have been approached by a male subject claiming there was 
something wrong with their vehicle. The subject would state that 
he could repair the vehicle on the spot. He would often not give 
the victim time to respond and would do the repair anyways and 
charge the victim. He would often charge anywhere from $500.00-
$8,000.00 and would be rather intimidating at times so the victims 
unwillingly paid the amounts. The suspect description was similar 
in many cases, but no suspect was identified. This type of situation 
was occurring in several local cities. LASO had a case in Temple City 
where deputies managed to obtain a DNA sample from the steering 
wheel of a vehicle which returned with a hit. This suspect had been 
featured in “America’s Most Wanted” for similar crimes throughout 
the country. Detective Oberon handled the investigation on the 
Monrovia cases and was able to identify the same suspect in 5 of our 
cases. Detective Oberon presented the case to the District Attorney’s 
Office and was able to obtain a filing in each of our cases and get a 1 
million dollar warrant for the suspect. 

Embezzlement Case

 Detective Chad Harvey received an embezzlement case from 
a company who reported the crime back in October of 2011. An 
employee had embezzled money from them. Once the investigation 
was occurring, it was discovered that the employee had been 
embezzling money for several years. The employee actually paid for 
kids to go to college, get a car, remodel a kitchen, go on vacations, 
and pay for bills. This information was obtained by conducting 20 
search warrants on accounts belonging to the employee. The loss was 
determined to be in excess of approximately $950,000.00. After a year 
of investigating the case, it was taken to the Major Fraud Division at 
the District Attorney’s Office in LA where charges were finally filed 
against the suspect in September 2015. 

DUARTE RESIDENTS INVITED TO ATTEND AN 

INFORMATIONAL MIXER, OCTOBER 14TH TO LEARN 

ABOUT CITY COMMISSION OPPORTUNITIES

The City of Duarte is hosting a fun and informational recruitment 
mixer entitled “Service with a Smile” on October 14, 2015 from 5:30 
p.m. to 7:00 p.m. in the Civic Center Courtyard at 1600 Huntington 
Drive to promote the 17 available City Commissioner positions. 
Attendees will be able to mingle with fellow community members 
while learning about available Commission and Committee 
opportunities on the City’s existing six commissions and two 
committees. Free food and beverages will also be provided.

 The City of Duarte will begin accepting applications in October 
to fill the 17 positions and residents interested in serving on a 
commission will have until November 19, 2015 to apply. 

 Six Commissions offer interested citizens a variety of opportunities 
to serve their community in an advisory capacity to the City 
Council. Positions are available on the Planning Commission (1), 
Traffic Safety Commission (2), Public Services Commission (3), 
Public Safety Commission (4 total: 4 resident appointment for 4-year 
terms), Parks and Recreation Commission (5 total: 4 residents, and 
1 non-resident), and Economic Development Commission (2 total: 2 
residents) and 2 business owner/operator required to be nominated 
by the Chamber of Commerce). All terms will expire December 31, 
2019 with the exception of one of the resident vacancies on Parks and 
Recreation Commission which will expire December 31, 2017.

 Application forms will be available starting October 1, 2015 at 
City Hall, Public Safety, Duarte Teen and Senior Centers. The form 
will also be available online at www.accessduarte.com. Completed 
applications must be received by the City Manager’s Office at Duarte 
City Hall, 1600 Huntington Drive by 6p.m. 

 City Council members will tentatively interview applicants 
beginning at 4:00 p.m. on December 1st and 2nd at the Duarte 
Community Center. Appointments will be announced at the 
December 8th City Council meeting and new commissioners will 
formally take their oath of office at the first meeting in January 2016. 
For more information on the Commissioner recruitment process 
or the upcoming Mixer, please contact Karen Herrera, Deputy City 
Manager at (626) 357-7931 ext. 221 or via email at herrerakaren@
accessduarte.com 

 About the City of Duarte

The City of Duarte was incorporated on August 22, 1957. With 
integrity and transparency, the City provides exemplary public 
services in a caring and fiscally responsible manner with a 
commitment to our community’s future. For more information visit 
www.accessduarte.com or call (626) 357-7931. Follow the City of 
Duarte on Facebook at facebook.com/duartecommunity; Twitter @
CityofDuarte; Instagram @city_of_duarte and LinkedIn.