Citibank

Darleene Barrientos Instead of putting a 75-foot Christmas tree on the top of its high-rise building, Citibank used the money to buy thousands of gifts Friday for the Marine Corps' Toys for Tots program. The 75-foot Christmas tree that has traditionally greeted Glendale residents and motorists on the Ventura (134) Freeway each season won't make an appearance this year. The tree sat grandly atop the high-rise building at 700 N. Brand Blvd. in past years, a sign that, for many people, Christmas had arrived in Glendale.

Crescenta Valley Sheriff’s Station detectives are asking for the public’s help in identifying a man who robbed the Citibank in the 2600 block of Foothill Boulevard at gunpoint at 5:50 p.m. on Dec. 26. According to Det. Frank Diana, the suspect was described as a white man, 40 to 50 years old, 5’7” to 5’10’, 160 to 200 pounds. He had green and red tattoos on his left forearm and upper arm. He wore a dark ski mask that covered most of his face, a baseball hat, sunglasses and an insulated winter vest.

Josh Kleinbaum A Christmas tree that once symbolized the holiday season for Glendale residents could soon fade into a distant memory. Officials from Citibank, the primary tenant in an office building at 700 N. Brand Blvd., said that the bank will not put a 75-foot tree atop the building for the second consecutive year. "It's true that we will make a donation to a local nonprofit organization instead of putting the tree on top of the building this year," Citibank spokeswoman Janice Tarver said.

No arrests have been made since Saturday morning's robbery of the Citibank branch in Montrose. Investigators are attempting to identify the robber, said Glendale Police Department Det. Keith Soboleski. The suspect is described as a white male 5'6," weighing an estimated 150 pounds with curly, dark-blonde hair and green eyes. According to a police report the suspect waited in line and approached a female employee at a tellers window at almost 11 a.m. The report states he said, "This is a robbery.

Josh Kleinbaum The 75-foot Christmas tree that for years sat atop an office building at 700 N. Brand Blvd. during December is gone. And Citibank, the building's largest tenant, and Equity Office, the building's owner, have been hearing complaints about it. Now that they are aware of the issue, Citibank spokeswoman Janice Tarter said the bank probably will put up the tree soon. "It's kind of deja vu for me," Tarter said. "I worked for Cal Fed bank [in 1998]

Jackson Bell For brothers Joel and Jose Olvera, the holiday presents they received Friday were the first new toys they have received in more than a year. Had it not been for the California Highway Patrol's annual "ChiPs for Kids" toy drive, Christmas might have again passed by without presents, said Sonia Ramirez, the young boys' mother. "It's been hard, because I've been looking for work and we don't have any money," Ramirez said. "This is something special for them."

One Glendale man saw the bars of a jail cell rather than the birthday candles on his cake Monday. Scott William Jongeneel, 35, was arrested Monday after Citibank employees recognized him as the person who threatened in January to shoot all the employees at the bank branch, at 2350 Honolulu Ave., Glendale Police spokeswoman Officer Leticia Chang said. Two handguns were found in the trunk of Jongeneel's car, Chang said. Jongeneel did not bring the guns into the bank.

Montrose community leader Stephanie Mines is facing a police investigation and civil proceedings over allegedly depositing more than $20,000 in bad checks into her credit union account. The checks were reportedly written on her personal Citibank account. Credit Union CEO Stuart Perlitsh said he plans to prosecute, and will be in court next week. "It was a classic check kiting case," he said. "She would walk the checks back and forth between the two institutions." Perlitsh said he had not had a similar case in the past 12 years, and was pursuing prosecution at least in part as a message to the community.

GLENDALE — Two Los Angeles residents arrested for allegedly attempting to defraud a Citibank branch in Glendale of $30,000 on Monday will be arraigned Glendale Superior Court next month, police said. Shelly Yun, 52, and Lance Kim, 47, were arrested Monday at the Citibank on the 400 block of North Central Avenue after bank officers flagged Yun's loan application for possible fraud, police said. Yun applied for a $60,000 unsecured loan at the Glendale branch in March as a line of credit for two fictitious businesses supposedly based in North Carolina, according to police reports.

The Crescenta Valley Sierra Club presents author John Robinson on Tuesday, April 10 at 7:30 p.m. at Citibank community room at 2350 Honolulu Ave. in Montrose (note the new meeting place). Robinson is the author of two outstanding, best-selling trail guides, "Trails of the Angeles," and "San Bernardino Mountain Trails," along with several others about the local mountains. On Tuesday evening, he will share his adventures as an outdoorsman, writer and historian. In October, 2005, Robinson was recognized for "exceptional lifetime achievements that brought distinction to history," and was made a Fellow of the Historical Society of Southern California.

The dining room was packed with students, parents and Lions Club members at the El Sol restaurant July 9 for the annual Crescenta-Cañada Lions Club Awards dinner. The Lions Club has been giving significant scholarships to local high school graduating seniors for the past several years. At this most recent event, the club gave $6,000 to six students. Each student received a $1,000 check and lots of applause as they were announced and brought to the center of the room by Club President Art Rinaman . Three of the students graduated from Crescenta Valley High School and three graduated from La Cañada High School.

The FBI has determined that a bank robber deemed the “Sleeves Bandit” is responsible for a robbery in La Crescenta and one in La Cañada. The agency, along with the police and sheriff’s departments, is asking for the public’s assistance in identifying the suspect. The two crimes in the area attributed to the suspect are the La Crescenta Citibank robbery that occurred on Dec. 26, 2008 and the La Cañada Citibank robbery on Jan. 30, 2009. It is also believed he is responsible for a La Cañada pharmacy robbery that same day. The “Sleeves Bandit” is named for what appear to be fake tattoo sleeves he has worn during some of the 15 robberies attributed to him throughout the state.

NORTHWEST GLENDALE — A serial robber, dubbed the Salt and Pepper Bandit, threatened a Citibank teller that he had a gun during a holdup Thursday afternoon, then fled with cash, police said. The man, whose identity is unknown, has robbed at least 13 banks since the beginning of the year, FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller said. Glendale’s Citibank at 1201 N. Central Ave. was the latest bank to fall victim to the robber. He reportedly entered the bank just after 1 p.m. Thursday and passed the teller a note, which likely said that if the teller did not give him money, he would begin shooting, Eimiller said.

Crescenta Valley Sheriff’s Station detectives are asking for the public’s help in identifying a man who robbed the Citibank in the 2600 block of Foothill Boulevard at gunpoint at 5:50 p.m. on Dec. 26. According to Det. Frank Diana, the suspect was described as a white man, 40 to 50 years old, 5’7” to 5’10’, 160 to 200 pounds. He had green and red tattoos on his left forearm and upper arm. He wore a dark ski mask that covered most of his face, a baseball hat, sunglasses and an insulated winter vest.

The largest toy giveaway in the Glendale-Burbank area didn’t just offer more toys to more children than ever before, officials said, it also gave many of them their first experiences with a pair of iconic creatures: live reindeer. The antlered animals, scarce in California and commonly associated with Christmas, were one of the attractions on the way to a gym full of Hannah Montana dolls, Batman action figures and other popular toys at the New Horizons Family Center’s 14th annual toy and volunteer drive, which was held Saturday at the organization’s youth center.

For all of the people who were affected by the fires, please know that you are held in our thoughts and prayers and we only wish you the very best for the future. The show still went on despite the windy, smoky air and having most of the freeways closed. I would like to thank Laurie Jo Phillips (of Laurie Jo Designs) and her brother Kirk Phillips for all the hard work that went into putting on this first-time Fall Arts Festival; they did a great job. Thank you to Andy’s Transfer & Storage for supplying the trash containers and to Chris Waldheim of J’s Maintenance for their support in the clean-up.

PASADENA — A Superior Court judge on Wednesday postponed the arraignment of Stephanie Mines, a civic leader accused of defrauding a local credit union, after she notified the court that she wanted to switch to a public defender. Mines — who has served as a Glendale Education Foundation member and as president of the Soroptimist International of the Verdugos — had retained private attorney George Bird Jr. for her previous appearances, but told Judge Teri Schwartz that she was requesting a public defender to move forward with the case.

GLENDALE — Ten members of the Soroptimist International of the Verdugos have left the organization over concerns that member Stephanie Mines’ push to join a major group fundraiser posed a conflict due to felony fraud charges pending against her. Mines is accused of passing bad checks from a Citibank business account to her personal account at the Glendale Area Schools Federal Credit Union — a practice called check kiting —...

Montrose community leader Stephanie Mines is facing a police investigation and civil proceedings over allegedly depositing more than $20,000 in bad checks into her credit union account. The checks were reportedly written on her personal Citibank account. Credit Union CEO Stuart Perlitsh said he plans to prosecute, and will be in court next week. "It was a classic check kiting case," he said. "She would walk the checks back and forth between the two institutions." Perlitsh said he had not had a similar case in the past 12 years, and was pursuing prosecution at least in part as a message to the community.

GLENDALE — Two Los Angeles residents arrested for allegedly attempting to defraud a Citibank branch in Glendale of $30,000 on Monday will be arraigned Glendale Superior Court next month, police said. Shelly Yun, 52, and Lance Kim, 47, were arrested Monday at the Citibank on the 400 block of North Central Avenue after bank officers flagged Yun's loan application for possible fraud, police said. Yun applied for a $60,000 unsecured loan at the Glendale branch in March as a line of credit for two fictitious businesses supposedly based in North Carolina, according to police reports.