altadenablog

Serious crimes continue to go down in Altadena

by Carolyn Seitz

Below is the latest release of Crime Statistics for the areas of Los Angeles County serviced by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. 

The first page shows you how Altadena compares to the rest of Los Angeles County for Part I Crimes and Property Crimes.  You'll note that we continue to experience the greatest reduction in Part I crimes of any area in the county thanks to the leadership team at the Altadena Station and the great deputies who serve our community.

These pages of reports also show you how 2011, year to date as of August 31, 2011, compares with the same period for 2006 and for last year.

The second page shows you the overall breakdown for Part I Crimes and Property Crimes for Altadena.  Please note that the reports for the last few months show that Altadena has had five rapes reported.  Lt. Joseph Dempsey indicated previously that all five reported rapes were alleged to have been committed by a person known to the victim. 

The last page provides greater detail about crimes reported, with an overall reduction in crime in Altadena of 34.68%.

It is the cooperation of the community and the watchfulness of neighbors keeping an eye out for the safety of their neighbors that is making a difference in Altadena.  Please continue to partner with the Sheriff's Department and report all suspicious activity, unusual behavior, people not familiar to you sitting in vehicles in your neighborhood, especially while others are going door-to-door.  It is your calls to the Station that are helping have an impact on crime.  Please call 626 798 1131 to report suspicious activity.

 

More close encounters?

We've got more information on UFO sightings in Altadena after the one spotted Tuesday night: the website The Vike Factor has two more: one that occured Sept. 20-21 in 2009, spotted by someone on the Zorthian Ranch.  Well, lots of mysterious things have been spotted at the Zorthian Ranch over the years.

But, says the Vike Factor -- another one was spotted Saturday night -- about a year later -- by a hiker in Echo Canyon.

Maybe we're having a UFO "flap"?  Or maybe the gray aliens are arriving at the "ecosexual marriage to the moon" a little early ....

Photo:  Bill Westphal's weathercam snagged a picture of this mysterious disc-shaped object on Nov. 24, 2008.

Alta-geist

Not in season (altho' we're already getting Halloween catalogues!) but Irina Netchaev's Pasadena Views real estate website has a story about an Altadena haunted house today.  Mysterious noises, blinking lights, stuff moving around ... we wonder if "haunted" is one of the disclosures one has to make before a sale?

Short takes

• Angela Odom's FemmeNoir page looks at local haunts.
• PSN's Mickie Mills looks at glass artist Leigh Adams, the featured artist in Dec. 3's Art Bender at McGinty's Gallery at the End of the World.

Post-Halloween post: coast to ghost

We have a soft spot in our hearts for paranormal researchers, UFOs, and bigfoot (that's why we listen to Coast to Coast nightly).  Glad to see that some folks who call themselves Westside Paranormal Research are planning a nighttime expedition to the Cobb Estate in search of the ectoplasmic. (We don't think our reptilian secret masters will let them succeed, tho'!)

Getting in the spirit -- or not

Cape Cod Times has an article on ghost hunting, just to get you in the mood for Halloween.  And Altadena's Skeptics Society, as you can expect, delivers the buzzkill.

Isn't it romantic? (2000's version)

Inland Daily Bulletin's story about Laurie Roades and Alison Bowen's  wedding at the Altadena Community Church (UCC) shows that gushy stories about gay romance can be just as nauseating as straight stories of same.

Throwing a wet blanket on Gravity Hill

Gravity Hill, on Loma Alta near the Rubio Canyon Debris Basin, has a reputation as the most haunted place in Altadena (perhaps next to the Cobb Estate, a/k/a "The Haunted Forest.")  If you put your car in the right place and release the brakes, you apparently go uphill-- legend has it, pushed by the ghostly hands of the children who died in a school bus crash into the basin -- so what if it isn't true?  Many teenagers have been lured there late at night for the scare and ... whatever it is they do late at night.

(Gravity Hill will be the subject of a forthcoming Altadenablog video).

Anyway, some killjoy has distributed flyers around the area, neatly debunking the anti-gravity effects as an optical illusion.

As one local newsgroup commenter puts it:

Are we trying to de-emphasize Gravity Hill's cachet as a tourist destination?

I mean, most of the 'tourists' aren't there for the physics anyway, they're there for the chemistry.

or perhaps for the biology ...

Teens freak out in "haunted forest"

A kandy-colored teenage freakout at the Cobb Estate.  What more can we say?  This on property that was owned by the Marx Brothers?

Gravity Hill?

One of the newsgroups we monitor has a lot of discussion about "Gravity Hill" in Altadena.  Someone was stopped by a carful of young people looking for this spooky place -- where you put your car in neutral and it's pulled uphill.  Others report cars coming by the neighborhood at night, pulling this maneuver, and U-turning to try it again.

Here's how it works, according to one resident of Loma Alta Drive:

Drive your car to the top of Loma Alta Drive, before the bridge over Rubio Canyon.

Near the top.....stop your car in front of the gate on the chain link fence, when you look toward the flood control basin.

Stop your car.  Put it in neutral.  Release the foot brake and parking break.

Look at the fence and the gate.  You'll notice the car is moving backwards, but will look and feel like it's moving forward.  It should look like you're going backwards UPHILL.

As with most spooky things, it's better at night.

Yes, it's an optical illusion -- and we haven't tried it yet -- but we await your reports and fine tuning on how to maximize the experience.