Arcadia police are calling this past holiday season quiet in terms of criminal activity. The one crime of note was the bank robbery of Citizen's Business Bank on First Avenue on December 31, 2001.
Arcadia police pursued and arrested armed suspects after they robbed a Wells Fargo Bank at 211 East Foothill Boulevard. The suspects were Wilfredo Ramirez, Aaron Allen, Melonie Young, and Robert Burnham.
Four suspects involved in an Arcadia bank robbery had their original bail amounts increased from $35,000 to $280,000 and upwards of $300,000. The suspects were Wilfredo Ramirez, Aaron Allen, Melonie Young, and Robert Burnham.
Dr. Stephen Liu, CEO and chairman of the board of Tomato Bank, is shown in photo. Tomato Bank is opening a branch in Arcadia at 1317 S. Baldwin Avenue with a grand opening celebration on Saturday.
A man believed to be the "Old Timer Bandit" was shot and killed by an Arcadia police detective after he allegedly robbed banks in Arcadia and Pasadena and led police on a high-speed chase.
Arcadia police surrounded a home in the 1700 block of Mayflower Avenue in a 7-hour standoff with an armed suspect believed to be threatening suicide and harm to other people in the house. Herb Rodrigues said the alleged gunman was his girlfriend's son. When police entered the house, only an elderly man was there, alone. The suspect had fled.
23-year-old Arcadia man Joshua Martin Parra-Davis was booked by Arcadia Police on suspicion of possessing an explosive device and leaving it in a backpack near a Bank of America on Foothill Boulevard on Friday, January 14, 2011. Witnesses said Parra-Davis first went to Foothills Middle School and may have been trying to open classrooms when he was confronted and ran off. The suspect was then seen dropping a backpack in bushes near the Bank of America and then running through the parking lot, where officers detained him. Arcadia Police called the bomb squad. The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Bob Squad successfully detonated the device. Parra-Davis could be arranged in Pasadena Court today.
The FBI is asking for the public's help in finding the "Fedex bandits" who have robbed banks throughout Southern California including Arcadia on October 24, 2003.
Arcadia Mayor Dr. Sheng Chang said he plans to sue two business partners for libel over their charges that he embezzled money from the Access IPA medical group. Dr. Araceli Chanbonpin and Dr. Azucena Porrai charged in a letter that Chang improperly closed a savings account in the company's name at Bank of East Asia. The amount in the account was $421,483.59. Chang, who is president of Access IPA, said he moved the funds to Preferred Bank to establish more banking relationships for the company. When the other two doctors objected, Chang said he moved the money back to the Bank of East Asia.
Arcadia vote-by-mail ballots contain translation error in Chinese-language instructions which could cause some votes to be invalidated. Five candidates vie for the two seats on Arcadia City Council in this April's General Municipal Election, but erroneous instructions in Chinese language said to choose up to three candidates.
Dwight Chang of Arcadia is owner of a house on the 1300 block of South Palm Avenue in San Gabriel. The building has been operating as a makeshift maternity ward with 10 newborns and about 12 Chinese nationals, crammed into an illegally converted townhouse. Chang has been warned twice before for operating a business that primarily caters to Asian "maternity tourists." Chang denied any wrongdoing and was fined $800 for building code violations. Children born on American soil automatically become United States citizens, under the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. Maternity tourism caters to wealthy Taiwanese, Chinese and Koreans. Throughout the past decade, similar set-ups have been uncovered in Rowland Heights, Hacienda Heights, New York, and Quebec.