by TImothy Rutt
We've gotten several emails regarding a show of force (choppers and squad cars) at Altadena Drive and New York Drive this afternoon. Lt. Angela Shepherd at the Crescenta Valley Sheriff's Station says that they were trying to catch some burglars, and did place two suspects under arrest. More as we get it.
UPDATE I: Lt. Shepherd sent out an announcement that gave more details: deputies responded about 2:38 PM to a call from the 1900 block of Minoru Drive. A neighbor reported seeing three black males run from her neighbor's house and flee in blue pickup truck. Deputies spotted the vehicle on New York Avenue, where it turned into a driveway on the 2600 block of New York and the suspects fled the vehicle. Using many deputies, a chopper, and at least one K-9 unit, they located two suspects hiding in a nearby back yard who were taken without incident. Deputies believe one suspect is still at large. The abandoned truck contained four boxes of jewelry that belonged to the victim, according to the report.
UPDATE II: We had a call from the woman whose says her Minoru Drive home was burglarized while she was at work (our policy is to not identify crime victims unless necessary). Said she was burglarized six months before -- again, losing jewelry, but not all of it. The current burglars used the same M.O. as the previous ones: parked in a secluded spot in the neighborhood, jumped over her fence, and broke a window in back of the house to enter. The difference this time: an alarm and an attentive neighbor.
She says her neighbor was suspicious of the truck parked in a concealed area in the neighborhood and called the sheriffs: "This woman called the police before they even broke into the house," she said. "They were already on their way before the house was broken into."
The alarm -- which was installed after the first burglary -- went off, which alerted other neighbors, and the monitoring company, which called her at work: " Initially, I thought there was some kind of mistake because I just been robbed six months earlier -- how can this be happening six months later?" When she arrived at her home, there were deputies already on the scene: "The police were great -- I couldn't go in the house -- they went in to really check everything out, they were very careful and very thorough ...I felt that they handled it very well."
She says she was taken to the location where the truck had been abandoned, and identified her jewelry, which was in the truck and on the ground nearby. The items are in the hands of the sheriffs right now.
"This is all really dependent on an observant neighbor -- that's the lesson here," she said.
