Recently in Hacienda Heights Category

We heard this call on the scanner about 3 p.m. this afternoon. Draw your own conclusions:

HACIENDA HEIGHTS - A woman who looked pregnant and had a young child waiting in her car swiped a charity bucket on Tuesday from a CVS Pharmacy.

Los Angeles County sheriff's Lt. Mark Relyea said the woman took the bucket from the CVS at 887 Hacienda Blvd. around 3 p.m.

Relyea did not say how much money was in the bucket.

The "heavyset" woman left in a white Toyota Corolla, Relyea said.

HACIENDA HEIGHTS -- Two 17-year-old boys were arrested Friday on suspicion of auto theft and hit-and-run after they allegedly crashed into a car full of Army soldiers, sheriff's officials said.

The teens were cruising in the car, which was reported stolen out of Fontana, in South El Monte when they struck the car with four soldiers in it and fled the scene.

The soldiers followed the car, phoning the location and license plate number of the suspects' car to sheriff's officials.

Deputies quickly realized the car was stolen, and a helicopter began following the car as well before it crashed into a tree in Hacienda Heights.

The teens ran but were quickly caught.

More cutting and pasting. This time there's three sources. First, Kate Kealy, night editor, reports:

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.... 

Mayor's son questioned in car theft case.

An unidentified person was detained at Mayor Ron Beilke's home Wednesday as part of an auto theft investigation, authorities said.

<snip>

Beilke said deputies questioned his 17-year-old son, who visited the same house as Sonny Costello, a 19-year-old transient, who is accused of stealing a 2002 Chevy Suburban on Tuesday night.

Monrovia plans outside investigation of claims against PD.

MONROVIA - Police Chief Roger Johnson said Wednesday that an outside agency would investigate sexual harassment allegations contained in a lawsuit filed against a Monrovia police officer.

Rudy Ramirez, 25, a former Monrovia jailer and member of the Monrovia police Explorer program, filed the lawsuit last month. He claims Sgt. Dan Verna sexually abused and harassed him beginning in 2000 while he was a minor until November 2006 when Ramirez was terminated by the department.

"Any of these allegations are going to be reviewed by a law enforcement agency independent of the Police Department to determine if there's been any wrong-doing," Johnson said.

<snip>

To bolster claims in his lawsuit, Ramirez states that Verna helped a suspected gang member, Salvador Parra, get released from Monrovia city jail on two occasions in 2006.

Sheriff's officials on Wednesday said a deputy saw Verna and Parra in 2006 inside of a parked car in Fish Canyon.

On patrol May 2, 2006, Deputy Mike Silva spotted the pair, authorities said. When he saw a gun in the car, the deputy detained Verna and called for backup, said Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Capt. Richard Shaw. 

Man shot and killed in Hacienda Heights.

Police responded to the 1100 block of Finegrove Avenue to reports of shots fired around 9:50 p.m., according to Deputy Aura Sierra of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.

They found a Latino man, 30, with multiple gun shots wounds in his torso, Sierra said.

CHiPs OIS follow up; woman identified.

Two CHP officers patrolling the eastbound 10 Freeway just after 11 p.m. initially noticed the woman as she passed them in her car, driving at a high rate of speed, Dolson said.

The officers thought she might have been under the influence, so they pulled her over at Hellman and Garfield avenues, just off the freeway, Dolson said.

When one of the officers approached the vehicle, the woman pulled out the replica handgun, prompting the officer to fire one round, he said.

The fake handgun was later recovered at the scene, said Los Angeles County sheriff's Deputy Oscar Butao.

"It looked exactly like a righteous firing gun," Dolson said. "You would probably have to handle it and examine it for a short time to realize it wasn't real."

A 15-year-old boy Friday admitted that he posted criminal threats on the website Wikipedia last month that targeted fellow students at Glen A. Wilson High School, officials said. 

The teen admitted to six counts of making criminal threats, said Jane Robison, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County district attorney's office. A seventh charge was dismissed, Robison said. 

The teenager was charged in connection with the posting of two threatening messages on the Wikipedia entry for Wilson High on April 16 and 17. In the messages, he threatened to shoot six students and "a good majority" of the school badminton team.

The Hacienda La Puente Unified School District closed the school April 18 after the threats appeared, and the boy was arrested later that day. 

This from reporter Ruby Gonzales in Whittier:

Two men suspected of robbing a Hacienda Heights bank were arrested Thursday after a sheriff's helicopter pilot spotted the getaway car and followed them, according to officials.
The robbery occurred at 12:56 p.m.

A man entered the US Bank at 2040 Hacienda Blvd. and handed a teller a note demanding money, said sheriff's Lt. John McBride.
The robber left with the loot and was seen getting into a green Honda Accord.

Witnesses gave a description of the robber, the car used and a partial license plate. A sheriff's helicopter pilot nearby heard the police broadcast and saw the car.

Richard Cho, 53, of Hacienda Heights has been booked on one count of robbery. Jose Rivera, 35, of Los Angeles was also booked on one count of robbery. Both suspects are being held at the sheriff's Industry Station jail. Bail for Cho has been set at $100,000.

 

In the News

Both the LAT and the Riverside Press-Enterprise delve into the rash of violence at the Soboba Indian reservation outside San Jacinto. PE includes a timeline of incidents that stretches back to 2007. I've heard that the tensions are long simmering and likely go back many more years if not decades.

Speaking of OIS, I stumbled on a law enforcement Web site (Officer.com) that carries discussions of several of the more recent shootings, including Tuesday's Covina shooting.

Speaking of law enforcement -- how about the confluence of TV and Sheriff's department causing a reexamination (and temporary closure) of the Sheriff's Academy in Whittier. Here's what the DN says.

On the blogs:

Nice back and forth between Proctor and Ortega for the coveted WWE Pasadena belt. There's an interesting revelation or two in there...Just in time for Judgement Day this weekend.

Elsewhere:

Speaking of Judgement Day there's lots of news coming out of China in the wake of the devastating 7.9 earthquake, there's also plenty of local connections.

Oh almost forgot, it's Bike Week in Pasadena, but that' doesn't make things any safer as Hector Gonzalez, city editor of the Star-News just pointed out in an e-mail:

so much for bike-to-work week:HACIENDA HEIGHTS<NO1>ZZSG<NO> <NO1>(CNS)<NO>- A bicyclist in his 60s was killed today when his bike and a car collided in the Hacienda Heights<NO1>ZZSG<NO> area.<QA>

The accident occurred about 7 a.m. on Los Altos Drive at Hacienda Boulevard, the California Highway Patrol reported. The man, who was not immediately identified, died at a hospital.<QA>