Too early to be a Halloween prank
A Carpinteria woman living on the 5700 block of Via Real has noticed several plants disappearing from her front yard recently. As a result, she has been careful to keep the windows locked and closed when she leaves. On Monday, Oct. 25, however, she had left all of her windows open, with screens in place for fresh air when she left around 10 a.m.

When she returned home around 2 p.m., she spotted her indoor cat outside the house and wondered how it had gotten out. She looked through the house and eventually found that window screen in her daughter’s room had been “maliciously removed” and spotted it on the ground outside.

As she replaced the screen on the window, she noticed a saw with a 12-inch blade on the ground with the word “Ruiz” carved into its wooden handle. The woman was not sure if someone had tried to play a trick on her or if she had interrupted a burglary.

Pet psychic points police to pilfered parrots
Something wasn’t right when an employee at a store selling live birds in Summerland opened shop on Thursday morning. The employee noticed the electricity to the store had been turned off and a sliding glass entrance door to a structure to the rear of the store was open.

She took a look around and found four birds were missing and called the police. While waiting for a deputy to arrive, one of the birds was found beneath the patio deck, apparently unharmed.

Police found damage to the aluminum door frame to the rear structure and unlocked Master locks dangling from several bird cages. But the cherished birds were missing and a reward poster went up offering a “no questions asked” reward of $5,000 for the safe return of the cockatoo, purple parrot and pacific parrotlet.

The next day, the store’s owner phoned police to say she had consulted a pet psychic and had a lead. The psychic told her she had been burglarized and that she sensed the suspect was an Asian male adult. Combined with a recollection of an Asian man who had spent two hours in the store the day before the burglary, the woman knew who to look for. She said she recalled the man “casing the joint” and other employees had witnessed the man looking at the electrical box.

A private investigator offered information to police next. The man told authorities that he had located one of birds, the white cockatoo, in the backyard of an Asian man living on West Valerio in Santa Barbara. The PI verified the identity of the bird by videotaping the bird and showing it to the storeowner.

Police confronted the Asian man who at first denied having them, but then consented to a search of his backyard. Police told him he would not be arrested that night if he would assist them in returning the birds to their owner.

The birds were recovered and the man was read his Miranda rights. The man denied actually taking the birds, but stated it was greed that motivated his idea to sell the birds.

The check better be in the mail
Police were dispatched on Tuesday, Oct. 26 at about 2 p.m. to a Meadow Circle home to investigate a report of threats to a woman living in the community. According to the police report, the woman stated that her landlord had sent her eviction notices and that during a recent phone conversation with him, he stated, “I’ll burn you,” and “You know what I do to people who owe me money? I beat them up.”

The officer contacted the landlord about an hour later. The man stated he had been having problems with the tenant because she had not paid her rent in four months. He said he was appalled at the statements attributed to him, and that such threats were completely out of his character.