Credit Card

GLENDALE — Salvation Army’s last-minute decision to introduce credit card machines at its iconic red kettle stations this season got a lukewarm response from the public, but plans to expand the program will continue, officials said. Glendale was one of only seven cities in the Southland to participate in the three-week trial after the Salvation Army Southern California Division took notice of the early success a corps in Colorado Springs was having with a similar program.

GLENDALE — Detectives continue to investigate an identify-theft case that led to the arrests of two men and a woman, who reportedly placed a detachable credit card skimmer on a bank’s ATM access door. Glendale police Financial Crimes Unit detectives on July 24 arrested Meher Abolian, 21, Tiffany Conant, 20, and Rane Melkom, 22. Police observed them attaching the credit-card skimmer and later detaching it. Identity thieves often use credit-card skimmers that are small hand-held devices that read a card’s magnetic strip and store information, such as names, account numbers and expiration dates.

LA CRESCENTA — Sheriff's detectives are investigating a security breach at a local Chase bank where alleged thieves placed a credit card skimmer on an ATM that may have allowed them to steal customer information. Detectives are waiting to receive critical evidence, including surveillance tapes and a list of potential victims, from the Chase bank on the 2900 block of Foothill Boulevard to determine the scope of the July 24 breach, said Los Angeles County Sheriff's Sgt. Ray Harley, who's based in La Crescenta.

Two Hollywood men face multiple charges of theft after they allegedly bought $100 gift cards at the Target in Glendale using stolen credit card information, officials said. Arthur Darbinyan, 21, and Alik Dzhanoyan, 20, were charged with five counts of theft of access card information, three counts of identity theft and two counts of second-degree commercial burglary, according to a Los Angeles County Superior Court criminal complaint. Their bail was reduced from $290,000 to $100,000 Tuesday in Superior Court.

School-vending initiative unveiled GLENDALE -- Nestle USA has introduced an initiative that would have its vending machines in schools nationwide. Nestle USA is based in Glendale. The Nesquick Milk Vending Initiative would provide campuses with machines that would carry Nesquick's flavored milks. The program would provide a beverage alternative to regular school-vending choices such as water, milk and other beverages, officials said. New travel software program touted MONTROSE -- A new software program designed to provide more detailed travel data on corporate credit-card purchases for travel has been created by Montrose Travel.

GLENDALE — Evidence of a fraudulent credit card operation led to the arrests Tuesday of three Tarzana men suspected of stealing tens of thousands of account numbers. Michael Castro, 24, William Johnson, 32, and Benjamin Granados, 31, were arrested Sept. 23 on suspicion of identity theft after detectives found re-encoded credit cards and equipment used to create those cards inside their Tarzana apartment, Glendale Police Det. Patrick Magtoto said. Police also found two guns.

Ben Godar A Pizza Hut delivery driver asking for a credit card Thursday was shown a gun instead, police say. The incident occurred about 2:40 p.m. at an apartment in the 400 block of West Colorado Street, police reports said. A man inside the apartment had placed an order using a credit card. When the driver asked the man to produce the card, the man became irate and displayed what the driver believed to be a revolver. The driver left the scene and called police.

A man was arrested Monday night after he allegedly drove his vehicle into a fire hydrant, police said. Officers responding to the crash allegedly found several fraudulent gift cards in the driver's pockets. Police found Edmound Nasiri, 26, of Glendale at about 6 p.m. in the driver's seat of a white utility truck, which was atop a broken fire hydrant that was leaking water onto San Fernando Road and Sonora Avenue, according to Glendale police reports. Nasiri, who had allegedly smoked a narcotic and was feeling sick, was unable to get out of his truck, police said.

SOUTH GLENDALE — Four people, including a Glendale man, were arrested Monday night after police allegedly discovered 24 re-encoded credit cards, methamphetamine and heroin in their motel room, officials said. Artur Kazaryan, 23, of Glendale, Brady Leatherman, 29, of Palm Springs, Jennifer Velasco, 23, of West Hollywood and Jessica Holtz, 32, of Arcadia were taken into custody after police searched their room at Motel Sakura on the 1500 block of East Colorado and found the alleged evidence of an identity theft operation, Glendale Police Det. Jason Ross said.

A 25-year-old Los Angeles man was arrested today after he allegedly tried to rob a gas station customer of his credit card, sheriff’s deputies said. Jose Hernandez was taken into custody about 1:40 a.m. in the 3000 block of Community Avenue, where he allegedly fled after the robbery attempt, according to Sgt. Ray Harley of the Crescenta Valley Sheriff’s Station. Hernandez, who was allegedly holding an empty beer can, approached the customer at the Shell gas station on the 3000 block of Foothill Boulevard and demanded his credit card, Harley said.

A 56-year-old Sunland man has been arrested on charges that he allegedly used stolen credit cards to pay for gasoline and diesel fuel that he then dumped into tanker trucks and sold on the black market, police said. U.S. Marshals took Hamlet Ayvazyan into custody May 21 on an arrest warrant stemming from the scheme, Glendale Police Sgt. Tom Lorenz said. He was later released from custody after posting $200,000 bail. “Unfortunately, it's been going on for many years,” Lorenz said of the scheme.

The number of credit cards held by municipal employees has dropped about30% as the amount of charges being billed has fallen even more, according to a recent city report. For the first quarter of 2012-13, the number of so-called procurement cards held by city employees was down to 191, compared to 277 last year, the report shows. Meanwhile, employees racked up $1.9 million in charges in fiscal year 2011-12 - or about half of what was billed in 2009. And if charges don't stray far from the $373,540 spent between July and September, Glendale is on track to get a smaller overall credit card bill at year's end. “That's the goal.

In the July 1 article, “Krikorian shrugs off cash woes,” the Republican candidate in the 43rd District calls the filing of bankruptcy to discharge credit card debt, “the last resort of trying to handle it.” A self-proclaimed “business conservative” should know better. Krikorian pulled a fast one on creditors. I don't want to see him pull a fast one on taxpayers in November. Greg Krikorian, please do us a favor and withdraw from the race. Jaime Rojas Glendale

The Republican candidate in the 43rd Assembly District who has touted himself as a “business conservative” extinguished more than $49,000 in credit card debt after he and his wife emerged from Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection, court records show. Candidate Greg Krikorian's wife, Christine, filed for bankruptcy in March 2011. He was added to the case as a co-debtor a month later, after the bankruptcy court noted that Christine had failed to list him in her filing as her husband and as a source of income.

Five men were charged Friday with multiple counts of identity theft after they allegedly used re-encoded credit cards to buy and resell gas for profit, police said. The men - Norik Tergalstanyan, 45, Arman Karapetyan, 24, Andranik Tashchyan, 57, Allen Babakhanian, 19, and 48-year-old Ruben Petrosyan - were named in the 17-count Los Angeles County Superior Court criminal complaint, which included felony identity theft and grand theft of access card charges for allegedly stealing personal bank account information belonging to 13 victims from Washington state.

The former general manager of Glendale Water & Power, who resigned abruptly last month after city officials started investigating his double-billing for an industry conference, is calling the issue a mistake. Former General Manager Glenn Steiger on Monday acknowledged that he double-billed the city for expenses related to a conference he attended on behalf of another organization, but said his decision to resign May 23, a day after city officials inquired about the receipts, was coincidental.

Police are asking for the public's help after a woman allegedly was robbed Wednesday afternoon on Brand Boulevard. The woman, who works as a housekeeper, was walking to a Wells Fargo Bank branch at about 3:20 p.m. when two men approached her from behind, according to Glendale Police Department reports. One of the men grabbed her arm and the purse from her right shoulder. They told her, “Don't move and don't act scared,” according to reports. The housekeeper told police she didn't struggle with the men because she was afraid.

A 21-year-old Burbank man faces identity theft charges this week after police found a re-encoded credit card in his home during a probation search. Gaik Panosian, who is on probation for identity theft, was arrested Tuesday after a Special Enforcement Detail officer recognized him near Doran Street and Concord as someone who detectives were looking for, Glendale police said. In February, detectives conducted a probation compliance search at Panosian's apartment and found a re-encoded credit card, police said.

A man was arrested Monday night after he allegedly drove his vehicle into a fire hydrant, police said. Officers responding to the crash allegedly found several fraudulent gift cards in the driver's pockets. Police found Edmound Nasiri, 26, of Glendale at about 6 p.m. in the driver's seat of a white utility truck, which was atop a broken fire hydrant that was leaking water onto San Fernando Road and Sonora Avenue, according to Glendale police reports. Nasiri, who had allegedly smoked a narcotic and was feeling sick, was unable to get out of his truck, police said.

Two Hollywood men face multiple charges of theft after they allegedly bought $100 gift cards at the Target in Glendale using stolen credit card information, officials said. Arthur Darbinyan, 21, and Alik Dzhanoyan, 20, were charged with five counts of theft of access card information, three counts of identity theft and two counts of second-degree commercial burglary, according to a Los Angeles County Superior Court criminal complaint. Their bail was reduced from $290,000 to $100,000 Tuesday in Superior Court.