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Man jailed in South Pasadena cell phone theft

By Brian Day on December 10, 2010 1:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) |

Evidencing the old saying that "no good deed goes unpunished," a woman tried to help a man in South Pasadena Thursday by letting him use her cell phone, only to have him reward her generosity by stealing it. Police jailed a suspect, however, and recovered the woman's phone:

SOUTH PASADENA -- Police officers -- including one who was off-duty at the time -- arrested a man Thursday after he asked to borrow a woman's cell phone, then ran off with it, authorities said.

Kevin Pollard, 18, of Pasadena was booked on suspicion of grand theft, South Pasadena police Officer Kevin Sandoval said.

He approached a 23-year-old woman about 1:30 p.m. on Mission Street, just west of Diamond Avenue, and asked to use her cell phone, the officer said.

The woman agreed and handed Pollard the phone, police said, and he ran away with it.

South Pasadena police Cpl. Matthew Petersen, who had just left work after his shift, spotted Pollard running down the street and thought he looked suspicious, Sgt. Robert Bartl said. When Petersen confronted Pollard and identified himself as an off-duty police officer, he fled from the corporal.

Officers saw Pollard run into Grassroots Natural Market, 1119 Fair Oaks Ave., and arrested him inside, police said. He claimed he had been running because he was being chased by gang members.

The stolen cell phone was found in some bushes near where the off-duty corporal first confronted Pollard, Sandoval said, and the victim identified him as the thief.

According to sheriff's booking records, Pollard was being held in lieu of $20,000 bail at the Pasadena Police Department's jail. Information regarding his initial court appearance was not available Thursday.

Child molestation case set for trial, again

By Brian Day on April 23, 2009 7:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) |

The case of Gregory Serrano, 34, of Monrovia, is due to go to trial Tuesday at Pasadena Superior Court, according to court officials.

Serrano is accused of using the Internet to lure, molest and take pornographic pictures of 10 underage girls.

His trial has been postponed several times already, so we'll see if this time it sticks.

Serrano has been charged with 20 counts of child molestation in the alleged crimes, which Los Angeles County District Attorney's officials say date back to June of 2006, United States Attorney Joey Blanch said.

In addition to the local charges, Serrano has been indicted on 23 federal charges including using the Internet to entice minors, producing and possessing child pornography and destroying evidence, United States Attorney's officials said.

Serrano was arrested March 12 after a 15-year-old girl reported the alleged molestation to her parents, officials said.

The alleged victims in the case range in age from 13 to 17, said Blanch.

If convicted on the federal charges alone, Serrano could face a sentence of life in prison, she added.

Gypsy Bunco

By Frank Girardot on November 8, 2008 8:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) |

Reporter Jennifer McLain dug through the clip file and discovered Gypsies have been preying on unsuspecting residents of the San Gabriel Valley for a real long time.

Here's a sample of her story:

Burglary rings, psychic reading, lottery scams and insurance frauds are among a sampling of crimes that Gypsies have committed throughout the area since 1965.
Gypsies, or Roma, are an ethnic group that originated in South Asia about 1000 B.C. and migrated through the Middle East and Europe.
Today, when police refer to Gypsies they are talking about a mixture of these ethnic Gypsies, as well as those who have adopted the lifestyle, which many associate with crime and superstition.
"It's a subculture of people, and of course you can't say all Gypsies are bad," said Jon Grow, executive director of the National Association of Bunco Investigators. "But the problem is that their laws and things they do for work - fortune telling, insurance fraud, welfare fraud, home repair scams

The calling card of a suspected scammer

By Frank Girardot on May 7, 2008 6:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (4) |

Here's the top of a story I just filed for tomorrow's newspaper:

The District Attorney's Office added 29 more charges Wednesday to its case against a Covina man accused of using Craigslist and eBay to scam renters and potential investors.

Prosecutors accuse Pardeep Singh, 30, of defrauding 22 potential renters of $2,400 each. Wednesday's filing follows a seven-count criminal complaint brought against Singh last week. He remains at large.

Two of the counts in the amended complaint involve the suspected theft of $185,000 from Kenneth Yandoli, a Glendale man.

"I hope something comes of it," said Jennifer Yandoli, who along with her husband loaned Singh $100,000 in September in exchange for a trust deed on Singh's Covina home at 5441 N. Calera Ave., according to public records.