Halloween

Halloween is an exciting night of the year and a special treat for young children. In the United States there will be about 41 million potential trick-or-treaters.

This Halloween evening, children will be enjoying new experiences that are fun, but distracting. They will be wearing unique costumes, made of unfamiliar material, crossing dark streets, and walking to the front door of a stranger’s home to ask for candy. It is an important night for parents to be extra vigilant, because the reality is; twice as many children are hit by a car while walking on Halloween than at any other day of the year.

Traffic collisions are by far the most common and potentially deadly type of collision threatening children this and every Halloween. While the number of children killed in traffic collisions on Halloween are fortunately small, traffic is a danger to children every day of the year.

Last year’s Halloween, in the City of Los Angeles, there were 52 traffic collisions between the hours of 5:00 p.m. and midnight. Seventeen of those collisions occurred in the San Fernando Valley portion of the City of Los Angeles.

This year we ask everyone to focus on safety. We want everyone to have a happy, fun and safe Halloween.

PARENTS: There is no real trick to making Halloween a real treat for kids.
• Always escort your children and carry a flashlight.
• Be familiar with the area where they will be trick-or-treating.
• Set a specific time for your children to be out.
• Always know who is trick-or-treating with them.
• Instruct your children to never enter any homes.
• Walk on the sidewalk and not on the street.
• Inspect all candy before allowing children to eat them.
• Throw away candy that is improperly sealed or spoiled.

Here are Halloween tips for children:
• Do not trick-or-treat by yourself.
• Do not take short cuts, especially through alleys.
• Obey all traffic signals and look in all directions when crossing the street.
• Don’t run, but walk to your destination.
• Don’t enter a stranger’s home or vehicle.
• Don’t carry toy guns or swords that may be confused with real weapons.
• Wait until you get home before eating any candy.



We have a Halloween message for motorists:
Drivers, let trick-or-treaters do the scaring with their costumes, not with your driving.

• Drive slowly. Please slow down!
• Look for children walking or running on the street.
• Be cautious, especially when entering or exiting driveways.
• Do not use a cell phone while driving. It is illegal.

Please keep your pets stress free by securing them. Strangers with costumes will repeatedly ring your doorbell. Keep your pets in a safe part of your home for their safety and that of the trick-or-treaters. That bowl of candy is for trick-or-treaters, not your pets. Candy, especially dark chocolate, can be deadly for dogs and cats.

No costume is clever enough to hide drunk drivers from a police officer. No matter who you are, impaired driving has scary consequences. Impaired drivers who fail to plan ahead turn the roads into a real-life horror show. Please, enjoy your Halloween festivities, and don’t drink and drive. Remember, buzzed driving is drunk driving!

The Los Angeles Police Department will have every available officer on patrol during Halloween to ensure the safety of all trick-or-treaters. If there is an emergency, please call 911. For additional information, please go to www.LAPDonline.org search “Halloween.”

Princesses and super heroes rule during Halloween, make sure that your trick-or-treaters are safe!

PROTECT YOUR VEHICLE / REDUCE VEHICLE THEFT

Did you know?

The ten (10) U.S. States with the most stolen vehicles are:
1. California 2. Florida 3. Texas
4. New York 5. Illinois 6. Georgia
7. New Jersey 8. Maryland 9. North Carolina
10. Nevada

Here's how to protect your vehicle

§ Take your key; don't leave it in or on your vehicle.
§ Close and lock all windows and doors when you park.
§ Park in well-lit areas - in a garage, if possible.
§ Never leave valuables in your vehicle, especially in plain sight

REMEMBER THIEVES WANT PARTS AND VALUABLE ITEMS, TOO.

Radios and wheel covers aren't the only popular stolen vehicle parts thieves take. They want whatever sells, from the mandated labeled parts to those that aren't. Among some of the most popular parts or items left in vehicles are: engine, transmission, air bags, radios, GPS units, iPods, laptops, and purses.

WE ARE ALL SUSCEPTIBLE TO VEHICLE THEFT.

§ Only about 52% of stolen vehicles are recovered.

DON'T FORGET

Don't Forget that the Neighborhood Watch Meeting is tomorrow 10/22/13 at 6:30PM at the corner of Noble and Marson. 

Home Invasion Robbery, Three Arrested

No random home invasion robbery. Three arrested. Gun and loot recovered. 

It started with a sound at a side window around 9AM in the 8100 block of Wakefield Avenue in Panorama City.  But no one was there when a young woman, home alone with her baby, awoke to check.  She got a little scared, then saw a man pacing in the front yard.  She asked through a window what the man wanted and he said he was looking for someone called Omar.

Then, all of a sudden, a noise from a back window of the house.  A dresser is pushed over and two masked men are standing in the bedroom demanding money.  One man, armed with a gun, tells her he knows she has money and he wants it.  She pleads with him not to hurt her because she has the baby, but the man is insistent and threatens the woman.

Meanwhile, the police are on their way because the victim called 9-1-1 after the suspicious man at the front door. 

The victim shows the robbers where some money is hidden from a recent court settlement.  Then there’s a knock at the door, and the lead robber goes to answer it.

“I guess he thought it was his lookout in the front yard,” said Lt. Paul Vernon, commanding officer of the Mission Detective Division.  “The masked robber got a surprise when it was the uniformed LAPD officer who had answered the 9-1-1 call.”

The patrol officers had already detained the man in the front yard, thinking he was the full reason for the call to police.  The officer knocked on the door to speak to the caller, and the officer was surprised when a masked man opened the door.

The robber slammed the door on the officer and ran.  “We’re lucky there wasn’t a shooting right there, given this man was armed,” Lt. Vernon explained.  “The robber and his partner jumped out a back window, and the chase was on.”

The patrol officer put out a back up, and responding officers and the police helicopter tracked the two robbers through yards all the way to the CVS store at Van Nuys Boulevard and Roscoe Boulevard, where both suspects gave up.

Detectives later found the would-be loot, thousands of dollars in cash, still in the victim’s home, abandoned in the robbers’ haste to get away.  A search by a canine and his partner located the gun inside the victim’s closet, apparently tossed there to keep from being caught with a gun.

Neither the victim nor her baby was injured.  The lead robber appeared to be a hardened gang member with tattoos.  His two accomplices were young, with not too much in the way of criminal histories.  “Given what they were up to, young or not, they knew this was a serious crime and wrong,” Lt. Vernon added.  “We’ll see how much they give up when detectives talk to them.  It’s clear there was some kind of inside information at work here.  This was no random robbery.”

All three suspects were booked for armed robbery.

Picture is of .22 cal pistol found by K9.

Suspect Arrested for Sexual Battery on 16-yr old Girl on Van Nuys Metro Bus

A 16- year old San Fernando Valley girl reported that on three occasions between August 27, 2013 through September 30, 2013 the same man had sexually battered her while she was riding the Metro bus in the Van Nuys area.

The victim did not report the first two assaults, since she believed she would never see the suspect again. After the third assault, the victim took a picture of the suspect after he exited the bus and reported it to Sheriff’s Transit Services Bureau deputies. (Photo attached)

Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Special Victims Bureau detectives were told by the victim that the three assaults occurred on Metro bus line #761, in the vicinity of Van Nuys Blvd/Vanowen St., and Van Nuys Blvd/Burbank Blvd. All three assaults occurred between 1PM and 3PM, one on a Monday, and two on Tuesdays.

The victim said the suspect would board the bus, sit next to her, cover himself in part with a sweater and then touch her.

The suspect in these crimes was identified after Sheriff’s Special Victims Bureau detectives distributed a crime bulletin using the picture taken by the victim. On October 8, 2013, officers from the Los Angeles Police Department – Van Nuys Division Bike Team, working with the Sheriff’s Special Victims Bureau lead investigator, located and detained 59-year old Suspect Majdeddin Nahvi, a transient person who listed his residence as Canoga Park. He was later identified by the victim.

The suspect was booked on two misdemeanor counts of Sexual Battery, 243.4 PC, and Annoy or molest children, 647.6(a)(1) PC. The suspect was arraigned and five misdemeanor counts were filed; 2-counts of 243.4 PC, 2-counts of 647.6(a)(1) PC, and 1-count of 242 PC. The suspect remains in custody in the Los Angeles County jail with bail set at $100,000.00.

The victim described the suspect as Male White/Hispanic or Middle Eastern, Black Hair and brown eyes. 5’8 and 140 lbs.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department is seeking the public’s help in locating and identifying other possible victims who might also have been victimized. Anyone with additional information is asked to call the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department Special Victims Bureau at 562-946-7960 or (877)710-5273(LASD) or email Specialvictims@lasd.org. Or if you wish to remain Anonymous, call “LA Crime Stoppers” by dialing 800-222-TIPS (8477), texting the letters TIPLA plus your tip to CRIMES (274637), or using the website http://lacrimestoppers.org