Credit Card

In the past women have been told to hold tight to their purses and men to their wallets because "pick pockets" are out there. But now with new technology all criminals need to empty your bank account is to go through your garbage, a U.S. Secret Service Agent told a group at Descanso last week. United States Secret Service Agent Patrick Casey gave clients of Hurley Wealth Management Group tips at last week's seminar at Descanso Gardens in La Cañada. President of the group, Greg Hurley, had invited Casey and Crescenta Valley Sheriff's Deputy Christopher Deacon to speak to the investors on identification theft.

NORTHWEST GLENDALE — Crime tips from residents led to the arrest Friday of a 16-year-old boy and two men on suspicion of actual or attempted burglary of a vehicle and homes, police said. The arrests came days after residents in northwest Glendale reported 16 burglaries in one day. Residents along Royal Boulevard, Idlewood Road and Prospect Avenue noticed the boy, 30-year-old Highland Park resident Francisco Moncada and 30-year-old Eagle Rock resident Julian Gayona acting suspicious and immediately called police, Glendale Police Sgt. Tom Lorenz said.

We all know there is a lot of hype of doom and gloom, so we don’t buy. Yes, things are tight but we still need to enjoy life, have a meal out, shop and just as important support our community. There are far too many great businesses here in town that need our support. So if you’re in a position to do so, shop Montrose. If you are looking for a particular business, contact the Chamber and we’ll be happy to refer you. We can all pull together and weather this storm, then look back on it as a learning experience.

According to a recent Gallup and Healthways poll, anger in Glendale is on the rise and comparable to residents in Pittsburg. That fact rather astounded me, considering that when compared to Pittsburg, we live in the land of milk and honey. Granted, due to the rains, the last couple of months have not been the prototypical picture of California dreamin’. I myself spent part of Sunday vacuuming water out of the entryway of our house. And while that may have been annoying, it wasn’t enough to make me as mad as say, having to live in Pittsburg would.

When Suzanne O'Connor was a teen she would rebel against her mom, L.A.'s original Bargain Lady, Geri Cook, by going shopping at Saks Fifth Avenue and charge something — now years later with a daughter of her own she is a bargain-ologist who hopes her daughter won't find her way to Saks Fifth Avenue with her credit card. "My mom is the one who taught me value," O'Connor said. "She taught me how to look for quality at a really great price and how to find those hidden places."

GLENDALE — San Luis Obispo County prosecutors on Tuesday were considering filing charges against four men, including three Glendale residents, arrested last week on suspicion of using fraudulent credit cards to buy goods from several stores, officials said. Glendale residents Hamlet Ramazyan, 23, Hakob Ghazarya, 26, and Hakob Vardanyan, 29, and Khachik Mkrtchyan, 26, of North Hollywood were arrested Thursday on suspicion of commercial burglary, possessing stolen property, theft of an access card or its data and use of fraudulent access information, according to the San Luis Obispo Police Department.

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.

DOWNTOWN — Two Glendale men have been charged with identity theft after detectives discovered a sophisticated credit-card-manufacturing operation in a northeast Glendale home, where hundreds of counterfeit, re-encoded cards had been produced and sold, officials said Tuesday. Vachik Kasumyan, 61, was charged Sept. 29 with 24 counts of theft and unlawful access-card activity and transfer of identifying information, according to the criminal complaint. Kasumyan, police said, owns the hillside home where the cards were fabricated and embossed.

Yes, we know. We’re in a recession. The latest unemployment figures are grim, both statewide and locally — 12.2% for the state as a whole, 10.4% in Burbank and 11.1% in Glendale. The September numbers, released this week from the California Economic Development Department, are worse than the month prior, with the labor force shrinking by 800 in Glendale and 400 in Burbank. The impacts are increasingly obvious. Stop by the Verdugo Jobs Center sometime. On any given weekday, hard-working people caught in this maelstrom sit at computers, revising resumes that will likely be ignored, making connections for jobs that don’t yet exist, and trying their hardest not to put their fists through the screen.

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.