Editor’s note: The following article was compiled from reports recently available at the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station. The reports are preliminary, compiled by deputies who respond to calls for service. There is no arrest information available for these reports.
The phantom robbery
Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station deputies responded to a report of a robbery “at gunpoint,” near Sierra Highway and Soledad Canyon Road, around 8:10 a.m. Oct. 6.
The victim reported that while he was dropping off items as a donation to those less fortunate, a man came up behind him and pointed a handgun to the left side of the victim’s head. The suspect demanded the victim’s cellphone and laptop. The victim then went to a nearby gas station and called the Sheriff’s Department.
The deputy contacted the branch manager and viewed time-stamped footage that showed the “victim” dropping off the items as mentioned, then getting into his car and closing the door.
“I did not observe anyone walk toward the victim’s vehicle and did not observe anyone fleeing the location, like the victim had stated,” according to the preliminary report of the incident.
The ol’ parakeet sneak
SCV deputies responded to a pet store on Newhall Ranch Road on Oct. 10, after a report of a petty theft. A store employee reported that an unknown person stole a set of keys to one of the bird cages and two of its inhabitants.
An employee had opened the cage the previous day to show a customer the birds. The employee accidentally left the keys in the keyhole. About 30 minutes later, a customer pointed out the cage was open, and an employee then noticed the two birds were missing.
The store’s security footage shows a man that store employees believe to be the suspect standing near the cage, although the footage immediately available did not show the suspect leaving the store. Deputies are awaiting additional footage. The informant also stated the keys to the store weren’t on the stolen set of keys.
Castaic hotel ‘regulars’
Deputies responded to a report that a man and a woman were seen on security footage entering a room at a hotel on Castaic Road without paying for it on Oct. 18. The informant stated the couple remained in the room overnight; however, at approximately 8 a.m., when the maid service entered the room, they were no longer there.
The manager expressed interest in pressing charges for trespassing, and said he’d be able to recognize the suspects if they returned.
In search of car-mailbox-vandalism justice
SCV deputies were called to a home on Caraway Lane on Oct. 9, regarding a report of vehicle vandalism and, the informant, the victim’s father, believes it might have been related to a report of mailboxes that were vandalized earlier in the week.
The vehicle-vandalism suspect(s) are believed to have damaged the car by causing scratch marks on it. “(The informant) believes it occurred as a result when the (suspect(s)) vandalized their neighbor’s mailbox,” according to a deputy’s report, as the car was parked in front of his neighbor’s house when the neighbor’s mailbox was vandalized.
During the course of the deputy’s investigation, he came in contact with a neighbor who reported a similar instance of vandalism occurring at approximately the same time and provided deputies with footage from a security camera.
