cop calls: June 2008 Archives

Photographer Watchara Phomicinda called to say the mounted posse prostitute roundup on Colorado Boulevard made for some great photographs.

A reporter and cameraman from KCBS/KCAL showed up after their assignment editor read about the event here earlier today. Very similar to what happened after we reported on the mythical Pasadena Panty Bandit.

Watchara said it didn't appear that any arrests were made, but some registered sex offenders living in a East Colorado hot sheet were rousted by deputies on horseback.

"It was great," Watchara said.

I'll have some of his photos up here Saturday.

Maybe we jumped the gun on the heat wave equaling a crime wave up in the SGV.

The scanner's been pretty quiet this morning...maybe its too hot to be stupid.

Anyway, the National Weather Service is predicting record temperatures. They've extended the red flag fire warning through Saturday night and issued an excessive heat warning.

Here's what the Associated Press is saying about the weather:

Firefighters worked in extreme heat to corral small brush fires as a strong high-pressure system cooked the air from the central coast south to Los Angeles and San Diego.

At Ice Station Valencia, a rink in the broiling Santa Clarita Valley, hockey director Larry Bruyere, 55, said: "You don't mind working here on days like this."

Los Angeles County opened 42 daytime cooling centers for seniors and suggested people visit air-conditioned malls and libraries in the evenings. The National Weather Service warned people to take precautions for heat that could quickly kill children or animals left in cars, even if the windows were cracked open.

As people cranked up air conditioners, energy use in Los Angeles peaked at 5,854 megawatts Thursday, breaking records for the month of June, according to the city Department of Water and Power.

Some links to monitor through the day:

CAL ISO -- Power usage in California.

NWS -- Warnings, forecasts, observations

INCIWEB -- Keeping track of fires for the Feds.

In Baldwin Park at least.

The gunfire continued Wednesday night when a car-to-car shooting was reported near the intersection of Nubia and Bleeker streets.

*Baldwin Park police officers sometimes forget to mention these crimes when we call, but that's why we have a scanner.

Oh, and the City Council? Well, Anthony Bejarano told me at a recent lunch meeting that the shootings, killings and other violent crimes occurring in Baldwin Park are a function of the socio-economic status of its residents...

In other words, poor people are more likely to commit crimes.

That of course doesnt' explain Phil Spector, OJ Simpson or the Kennedy and Skakel families ...

This from Brian Day:

It begins like a joke.,..two guys walk into a bank ...and hilarity ensues... Sadly ending in a high speed crash on a residential street.

Police responded to a report of a robbery in the parking lot of B of A on Azusa Avenue in Hacienda Heights.

No one knows what happened next or at least between the two men, but both men claimed the other tried to rob him. When cops arrived one of the men fled across the street into a neighborhood and hid on a rooftop. He was found and arrested pretty quick.

The other guy jumped into a '80s Oldsmobile and sped off from the bank parking lot at high speed. Cops called for a helicopter and chased the old Olds on Wedgeworth Drive where it crashed into a parked Toyota.... (BTW this is pretty close to Monday's copper theft from the Little League) and pursuit went near Wilson High and an elementary school.... 

Two guys used a handgun to rob a Pizza delivery man, One neighbor bashed another neighbor's head with a baseball bat, and a teen was stabbed in a parking lot. We're working on putting the details together.

It all happened in Baldwin Park late Friday and early Saturday .... we'll have it all rounded up in Sunday's paper.