The good news keeps coming for the Claremont Police Department. In recent months Claremont’s budget success and grant funding has allowed the local police department the ability to add to its ranks.
First, with the addition of a four-legged staff member named Dodger, a one-year-old British Labrador trained to identify narcotics. He is now the trusty partner of Officer Sean Evans, following him around to local schools and assisting in drug searches around the city.
Last month, officers began the search for a part-time, $32,500-a-year police detective with the approval of the Claremont City Council.
On Thursday, March 7 a man claiming his truck had run out of gas wasn’t enough to justify 53-year-old Eddie Paz’s excuse for changing his mode of transport to a stolen bike, especially when it turns out the truck was stolen to begin with. Police caught up with Mr. Paz at the Keck Science Center where they found him, bolt cutters in hand, putting the bike into the back of the stolen pickup.
On Tuesday, February 26 eighteen-year-olds Aimga Magallanes and Ryean Jones and 24-year-old Shawn Doty were caught idle, quite literally. The trio of Riverside residents ditched a car, still running, in the driveway of a home in the 2300 block of San Joaquin Court Tuesday morning and took off through the home’s backyard. Unfortunately for them, a neighbor witnessed the whole thing. In the time it would take to properly turn off a car to make a stealthy getaway, police were notified. Further reason for a stealthy getaway: the car was reported stolen.
Two Upland residents did not receive the sweet treat they were hoping for when they entered the 21 Choices on Foothill Boulevard Wednesday afternoon. All they got was a trip to jail. Police had followed 62-year-old Verde Beede and 32-year-old Kristie Lawlor to the frozen yogurt shop after discovering the car they were driving in was tagged as a felony vehicle by the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department.
Patrick Williams will go to great lengths to get a job, at least if you buy his story. Mr. Williams was seen breaking into the Harvey Mudd construction site at Dartmouth and Foothill Boulevard by scaling the 10-12 foot tall fence. Shortly after entering the site, Mr. Williams was joined by Campus Safety officers. He claimed to be taking a look around at the development in hopes of finding employment.
Church did not prove to be a sanctuary for a 15-year-old male hiding from police. The juvenile proved an easy find in a couple of games of “hide and seek” Saturday morning. While hiding out in some bushes on the side of a residence in the 1600 block of Rutgers Court, it soon became apparent he chose the wrong patch of foliage. His hiding place was located in front of a side window in plain view of the 86-year-old resident.
Two $1400 laptops were stolen in a bizarre coffeehouse theft Monday night, January 21. Both laptops were torn away from underneath the fingertips of their owners, working unaware on their computers at the Starbucks on Yale Avenue in the Claremont Village. Two men simultaneously stole the laptops and ran off into a dark-colored sedan waiting on Second Street, driven by another male. The 2 thieves are described as black males in their early 20s, both about 5 feet 9 inches tall and 170 pounds. A similar incident was reported at a Starbucks in Chino the same day, but a connection is unknown.
