According to the Arcadia Police Department's monthly activity report for the month of December, which reports statistics for the entire year, daytime burglaries increased while night burglaries decreased. Also, there were no murders, 3 rapes, 2 attempted rapes, 36 assaults with a gun and 13 arrests for indecent exposure in 1987.
Crime statistics for the first six months of 1980 show an increase in all categories. There have already been five bank robberies this year. According to Police Chief Charles Mitchell, "We're taking a beating."
Police are looking into possible connections between 2 murders of elderly women that occurred January 7. Lillian Lehman, 91, was found dead at her Fashion Park Villas condominium in Arcadia, while Dora Peyton, 78, was beaten to death at her Duarte home.
An international businessman was abducted from his Arcadia home and later released the same evening after his abductors demanded he pay them $1 million. He was told that he would be contacted the next day with instructions about where to put the money, but no money has been paid. This is the first kidnapping of this type in Arcadia, although there have been four other kidnappings in the San Gabriel Valley since last October.
Arcadia police, working with other law enforcement agencies, uncovered a major auto theft ring operating in the San Gabriel and San Fernando Valleys. Two men were arrested and four cars were recovered from a warehouse in Arcadia.
The 14-year-old son of Arcadia real estate developer Charles Bluth shot and killed one of 2 intruders who had broken into the Bluth home in the exclusive Whispering Pines neighborhood.
A disagreement between Arcadia's Citizen Sound Wall Committee and the acoustic engineer hired by the city to take sound readings at homes near the Foothill Freeway was patched up during a city council meeting.
More than 40 cats and kittens have taken over a foreclosed house in Arcadia and while most neighbors are complaining, some are feeding and trying to find a home for the cats. The house, at 381 Walnut Avenue, has been described as "one big litter box."
The Arcadia City Council has offered a $5000 reward for the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for the murders of 2 Arcadia women who were slain at their homes in the past weeks.
Arcadia Police Chief Charles Mitchell, in a speech to the legislative committee of the Chamber of Commerce, discussed crime and law enforcement in Arcadia.