oddball, weird, assorted: May 2008 Archives

Please welcome Brian Day to Crime Scene. He's the newspapers' night cop reporter and as plugged in as anyone I know when it comes to crime in the SGV.

Brian, who is two decades and two years younger than me, will be posting stuff that I can't get to and other stuff he thinks is relevant.

He likes Monday Night Raw, plays the guitar, smokes Marlboro reds, wears boxers, eats at Pizza Hut and In-N--Out  almost exclusively, and attends Cal State Fullerton where he's studying Journalism.

These blurbs come from the City News Service wire. They are written in an easy-to-read format for radio. I've supplied links to related content:

1. A former Bell police officer is due in a federal courtroom in downtown L- A this afternoon on charges of forcing a woman to have sex with him following a traffic stop just over a year ago. 33-year-old Feliciano Sanchez of Pico Rivera is accused of stopping the woman in Bell last May, then driving her to a remote location and forcing her to perform a sex act.
2. Meanwhile ... a Bell High School teacher is being accused of having sex with a 17-year-old female student. 37-year-old Alex Diaz was arrested May 21st on suspicion of having sex with a minor. Diaz and the teen were allegedly caught in the back seat of a car in a Carson parking lot. He's out of custody on 20-thousand-dollars bail.

After my encounter in Los Feliz Monday night, I've seen other accounts of Coyotes making their way into urban environments over the past several days. Including this one on LA Now.

Photographer Watchara Phomicinda had an encounter of his own today. Right on the Irwindale, Baldwin Park West Covina border. Here's his caption:

A coyote walks on an empty lot along Azusa Canyon Road near Olive
Street in Irwindale on Wednesday, May 28, 2008. (SGVN/Staff photo by
Watchara Phomicinda/SVCity)

Former Pomona teacher Steven Petralia is set to be sentenced in Superior Court *tomorrow.

A wrong way crash on the Southbound 605 kills a driver.  Just minutes before the accident, Anissa Rivera, our "Mom's the word" blogger describes her family's close call.

APU students are causing a parking problem in the neighborhood.

The search for more Manson Family victims at Barker Ranch in Inyo was a big zip.

Sheriff's Department about to release more information in the March slaying of a Covina Hills woman who was on the phone with 9-1-1 when she was shot to death.

This is one fat coyote. Believe it or not he was prowling Los Feliz Monday night at the intersection of North New Hampshire and Finley Avenue.

I pretty sure he had at least one friend, but the other coyote was sneakier and didn't want his picture taken.

Now I know why there's no stray cats in the neighborhood. I'd been wondering recently what happened to  this crazy homeless woman that hangs out nearby. She must be smarter than I thought. Who wants to sleep outside with these guys on the prowl? 

Apparently this has been reported before on an Atwater Village blog and may be fall out from the Griffith Park fire.

As for other sightings, coyotes make regular appearances in Arcadia. This from a city Web page dealing with animal control:

There are regular sightings of coyotes in the foothill areas of Arcadia, and along the horse trail and wash.  Residents should report sightings wherein a coyote seems to be unusually aggressive, sick or injured to the Pasadena Humane Society at 792-7151, extension 110, or to the Arcadia Police Department at 574-5150.

 

I love checking out Google's street view maps especially looking at places I'm familiar with.

Apparently it's an actual craze. According to Fox News, people actually hunt the maps for bizarre images.

Here's their story ... if you've found an interesting image in the SGV or Whittier you'd like to share, post a link in the comments section. I'll put all the links together in a post later today (that is if there are any).

As the mud continues to slide down a couple of Sierra Madre streets, reporter Fred Ortega gets busy reporting the news.

Photographer Leo Jarzomb shot this picture Friday May 23, amid the freak late spring rain storm that's pelted the region.

Those guys cleaning the streets are inmates. Fred's the guy with the umbrella.

Saw this ad on Craigslist. Here's the pitch:

Talented freelance online bloggers and vloggers wanted to intern for for start-up weekly blog/vlog reaching thousands via email in the Foothill Communities (from the 57 fwy to the 15 fwy along the 210 corridor...

Never leave your cow suit in an unlocked car. From the Daily Bulletin:

The store's crowd-pleasing life-size cow costume was stolen from the car trunk of an unidentified employee last weekend, and police have no leads so far.

The employee, a 42-year-old Upland woman, called police Saturday morning when she woke to find her car had been ransacked overnight on Bodenhamer Street.

The entire car had been scoured - even the glove box was left open - but "the only thing that was missing was the adult-sized black-and-white cow suit belonging to Chick-fil-A," Upland police Sgt. Cliff Mathews said.

(snip)

In his 17 years as a police officer, Mathews said he has never seen a mascot costume stolen.

"Certainly it's a very uncommon occurrence," he said.

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>

 

 

This is an excerpt of a Brian Day story running in tomorrow's newspaper. I think it enhances my theory that the world has turned into a giant game of Grand Theft Auto IV:

Three recent video game store robberies in which thieves seemed more interested in games, not cash, might be connected, authorities said Tuesday.

Detectives from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Major Crime Bureau are investigating a possible link between robberies at GameStop locations in Rosemead, Pico Rivera, and Bellflower that occurred between April 22 and Sunday, officials said.

The most recent incident was at a Rosemead GameStop store, located at 3000 San Gabriel Blvd., said sheriff's Sgt. Tri Hong.

Four robbers stole six PlayStation 3 video game systems and fled, said store manager Jovan Sanchez.

At least one handgun was used in the crime, Hong said.

Sanchez described the robbers as well-mannered and who said "please" as they demanded the video game systems.

 

Google News has a new feature that provides comments from "people in the news"  

I'm not sure how it works but it's cool.

When I first saw this photo by Watchara Phomicinda, I thought it was somebody wearing a Jimmy Carter mask at Vroman's Wednesday. Turns out, it's just Jimma bein Jimma.

Pasadena city government took a step closer Monday to enacting one of the nation's toughest anti-smoking laws.

Basically smokers will become pariahs on sidewalks, at ATMs, bus stops, and everywhere else in town that isn't the 210 Freeway.

Fred Ortega's filed a nice story summing up where the proposal stands, and has a blog entry on the subject too.

Others discussing it this a.m. include Aaron Proctor, Nosmoking Pasadena. I'll update this list as Google alerts me!

As for me, I'm still wondering how you enforce this sort of thing with an already understaffed police department. Are they enforcing laws against prostitution in the city's massage parlors?

Is the PD out there agressively arresting dope dealers? What about people who run red lights?

This accident occurred last Wednesday on Orange Avenue in West Covina. A firefighter got pretty mad at me for snapping the picture out of my window.

He thought I would cause another accident.

Still, you have to wonder what happened here?  These cars are pretty close to the curb aren't they?

This is a photo of Pardeep Singh wanted for his role in a Craigslist scam gone bad.

Amanda Baumfeld has been all over this story and plans on filing an update this afternoon. In the meantime here's a snippet of what she wrote for Friday's newspaper:

This is a very well put together scam," said Capt. Joe Hartshorne of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. "The families are truly victims. They could not have seen this coming."

A hold has been placed on Singh's passport and a silver Volvo left in the driveway has been impounded, officials said.

Renters began learning of the apparent fraud Monday night.

The Los Angeles Times didn't touch the story in its print version, but did post a blog entry at LA Now.  The story is accurate, but we're wondering where they got the picture of a "For Rent " sign.

None of the photographers or reporters who actually visited the scene at 5441 Calera Avenue saw a sign quite like that.

Took several photos over the past week (while the blog was down). Here's the first in the series:.

ICE agents get ready to take down a warehouse in Industry as part of an ongoing investigation. The agents were serving a warrant that was sealed. Not sure what they were looking for. They were surprised to see me and wanted to know how I got tipped off to the raid.

I responded "It's kind of hard not to notice 30 black Fords in the same parking lot as a bunch of guys wearing ICE jackets."

Aaron Proctor's increasingly infantile "Ham and Egger" award went to the entire staff of the Star-News last week.

Apparently he thought that because our computer system took a nose dive, the reporters and editors weren't working hard enough to get the paper out.

Looks like what's really not working hard enough is Aaron's printer. The award, which was enclosed in an envelope handed to me this a.m. by none other than Larry Wilson, is a black and white facsimilie of the color job Fred Ortega received last week.

Reporter Caroline An took one look and said, "What kind of cheap print job is that?"

Judge for yourself, I've posted my copy on a pillar next to my desk.