Police Blotter: Taggers, Takers and Fakers

Slashed balls and tagged walls:
Police responded to an afternoon report of vandalism at Grand View Elementary School on 24th Street on April 6. A fifth-grade teacher showed police four vandalized rubber balls ($7 each) and various students' jackets stored along an outside wall of her classroom. The items had apparently been slashed with a knife sometime over the spring break holiday.

The school's janitor also showed police where graffiti had been spray-painted on and near two exterior doors of the school building. The graffiti consisted of unprintable words, which the janitor painted over before the officer's arrival on the scene.

Back seat conniver:
At 11:45 a.m. on April 7, police received a call about an attempted burglary along the 500 block of 30th Street. The victim reported that a quarter-inch hole had been punched into the front right door of her car. The door's handle was partially pried away from the body. However, it did not appear that actual entry was gained, and no property was reported missing from the car.

"Based on the type of vehicle and model, I further deducted the suspect was attempting to gain entry with the purpose of stealing the third-row seat," the officer said in a report. Police have seen a number of such thefts from SUVs recently and, one day prior, arrested two men on suspicion of burglary and possession of tools for use in burglarizing a vehicle.

The officer advised the victim to have her driver's license number engraved into the frame of the seat for easy identification in the case of any future theft.

Painting the town black:
A 14th Street resident reported to police on April 12 that someone had marked the wooden railing surrounding her house with graffiti. An officer reported finding the letters "CMS" scrawled in black permanent marker along the railing and estimated the damage at $50.

While taking the report, the officer was approached by the victim's neighbor, who also reported finding graffiti on the rear passenger side of her car. The unintelligible markings were also done in black permanent marker, according to the officer's written account. The damage to the car was estimated at $400.

Police looked into a third report of graffiti the following morning at 9 a.m. in the 400 block of Highland Avenue. A resident showed an officer two areas of her property's exterior that had been marked with the numbers "420," a popular reference to smoking marijuana. The graffiti was between 15 and 18 inches in height and made with a black permanent marker. The property owner told police she was "not desirous of prosecution," according to a report.

Social insecurity:
Police responded to a report of fraud on the morning of April 13 by a resident who said he was contacted by a bill collector for the Dish Network. The resident said he was told he owed money for services rendered. When he called the company and explained that he had never sought its business, he was told his Social Security number was used to open an account in 2005. The company agent would not provide further information to the resident and instructed him to file a police report.

Writing criminals a blank check:
A resident reported to police on April 14 that fraudulent checks had been drawn on her Wells Fargo Bank checking account. The resident told police that on April 6 she had given a letter to her mail carrier for delivery to a local address. The letter contained a blank check for $45 and was to be submitted as payment to the Mira Costa High School Surf Team. The check was left blank, the resident said, because she did not know the name of the payee at the time she wrote the check.

On the morning of April 13, the resident learned from the payee that the check never arrived. When she checked her online banking statement, the resident found that her account was overdrawn by about $60. She then discovered two unauthorized checks written on the account. The checks were made out to Right Start in the amount of $142.18 and to Aaron Brothers for $332.15.

Both checks contained account holder information printed in their upper left corners that was unfamiliar to the victim. The printed name, along with a hand-written driver's license number and phone number, were run through the DMV and put into a Google search by police. The phone number belonged to a Beverly Hills landline and the DMV records connected the license number with an unreleased address.