California communities are remindedoften of the importance of disasterpreparedness, and Claremont is no

exception. With the ever-present threat of earthquakes and wild-

fires in our foothill community, residents and city staffknow the importance of having a centralized location thatallows first responders to communicate with those af-fected by the crisis.

The recent delivery of Claremont’s new state-of-the-artmobile communications center will provide just that.

In 2012, the Claremont Police Department commis-sioned Frontline Communications to build a 53-foot mo-bile communication center to better serve the community.Captain Jon Traber worked directly with the Florida-based company and served as the department’s projectmanager, overseeing the design and production of theunit from its conception through delivery in February2014.

“A project of this size has heavy customer involve-ment,” says Andy Callaway, General Manager of Front-line Communications. “We had three in-processinspections by the customer including a critical designreview. Once we were all in agreement, the buildingbegan.”

Construction of the mobile command center com-menced in March 2013 and required 8,000-plus man-hours to complete. Custom-built by the department’s

Wednesday, May 7Some call it graffiti, others call it art,

but safety officers at Harvey Mudd Col-lege just call it plain ol’ vandalism. Anunknown number of suspects took ad-vantage of an opportunity to deface a 50-foot-by-16-foot section of Linde AthleticField with graphic symbols depictingbreasts and a penis. A report of the crimewas taken by campus safety at HMC onMay 4 and forwarded to Claremont po-lice. The vandals have yet to be identi-fied.

* * * *Staff at Bon Appetit’s discovered they

were the victims of petty theft after sev-eral of their personal items had vanishedfrom the cafe. The alleged crime oc-curred between 11 p.m. on May 1 and12:15 a.m. on May 2 at Pitzer College’sMcConnell Dining Hall. Among theitems listed as missing include an em-ployee’s purse, boxed wine, a two-wayradio, a black mesh bag and five galva-nized steel tubs. There are no suspects atthis time.

* * * *A student at Claremont High School

lost more than his lunch money whensomeone stole a Kindle Fire right out ofhis backpack. The tablet was allegedlylifted from the student’s bag while hewas on campus between 10 a.m. and 11a.m. and has not been recovered.

Thursday, May 8A Covina man looking to make some

easy money was arrested when he triedto cash a fraudulent check at Aloe Pay-day in Claremont. Officers received acall regarding a fraud in progress at the

check-cashing business located on the400 block of Auto Center Drive. JesseDominguez, 35, allegedly tried to cash acheck that was flagged as fraudulent and,when confronted, admitted to the crime.Mr. Dominguez was arrested on posses-sion of a fictitious bill as well as posses-sion of a controlled substance.

* * * *A former Stater Bros. employee

caused quite a stir at the company’sFoothill Boulevard location when he vi-olated a restraining order simply bywalking into the market. Around 3:45p.m., the unnamed suspect entered thestore, purchased items and allgedly en-gaged a current employee with criminalthreats. According to Lt. Mike Ciszek,the suspect violated an existing restrain-ing order that prevents him from enter-ing any Stater Bros. property.

* * * *A Claremont resident learned the hard

way that even your own driveway isn’tsafe from thieves if they see somethingthey want. Two bicycles and a powergenerator worth a total of $2100 weretaken between 11:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m.from a home on the 1300 block of BaseLine Road. A report was taken and thesuspects are unknown at this time.

Friday, May 9Arturo Maya would probably be the

first to tell you that lying to a police offi-cer brings nothing but more trouble.Around 1 p.m., Claremont police re-sponded to a call of a man in a blue shirtand black jeans chasing a woman nearBonita and Mountain Avenues. Officerscaught up with the pair and discovered

the Glendora man was intoxicated. The19-year-old was transported to the sta-tion where he provided his name, how-ever, when his fingerprints came backunder a different name, the suspect apol-ogized to the officer stating, “I’m sorry Ilied, I lie about stupid sh*t all the time.”Mr. Maya was arrested and booked forgiving false information to an officer andbeing drunk in public.

* * * *An underage Claremont man put his

life in danger when he had too much todrink and wandered onto the path of theMetrolink rail system. Around 9:30 p.m.,officers responded to a call of an intoxi-cated person walking on the train tracksnear the Village at College Avenue. An-drew Perez, 18, was arrested and bookedfor being drunk and disorderly.

Saturday, May 10A Los Angeles resident got a lucky

“brake” when he was arrested for driv-ing under the influence after passing outbehind the wheel of his vehicle. Officerswere called to Base Line Road andMountain Avenue for a welfare checkaround 10:30 p.m. where they encoun-tered Erick Rosales slumped over thesteering wheel of his car. Officers tappedon the driver’s window, however, Mr.Rosales was unresponsive. Upon furtherinspection, officers could see that thecar’s gearshift was in the drive positionand the driver had his foot pressed on thebrake. Responding officers positionedtheir vehicle in front of the suspect’s carto prevent it from moving forward.Thinking that perhaps Mr. Rosales suf-fered a medical condition, officers brokethe side window, put the car in park andattempted to shake the 31-year-old manawake, but he remained unresponsive.

When officers confirmed the suspect wasintoxicated, Mr. Rosales was arrestedand booked for driving on a suspendedlicense and driving under the influence.Preliminary results indicate his blood al-cohol level was three times over the legallimit.

Sunday, May 11An initial call to Claremont police of

an assault with a deadly weapon resultedin the arrest of a 40-year-old man for an-imal cruelty. Officers responded to the2000 block of New Haven Avenue wherea woman indicated her husband at-tempted to hit her with a car and thenwitnessed him kicking two kittens.Phillip Hagen, a Claremont resident, wasarrested and released with a citation foranimal cruelty. Lt. Ciszek says the kit-tens were inspected following the inci-dent and appeared to be okay. They werelater released to the Humane Society.

* * * *Police and fire responded to a

Mother’s Day multi-car traffic collisionthat resulted in injuries, sending threepeople to the hospital. The accident oc-curred around 5:15 p.m. at the intersec-tion of Padua Avenue and Base LineRoad. A driver traveling southbound onPadua Avenue attempted to turn left ontoBase Line Road and failed to yield to an-other driver heading northbound onPadua that caused the vehicles to collide.Upon impact, both vehicles skiddedthough the intersection and struck a thirdcar. All involved, including the driver ofthe vehicle at fault, were transported toPomona Valley Hospital complaining ofshoulder, back, neck and chest pain.

—Angela Baileynews@claremont-courier.com

Claremont COURIER/Friday, May 16, 2014 4

POLICE BLOTTER

CITY NEWS

MOBILE CENTER /continues on next page

Mobile center meets police needs in changing world

COURIER photo/Steven FelschundneffClaremont Police Captain Jon Traber shows off the interior of the department’s new mobile emergency oper-ations center recently at the police station. The 53-foot-long trailer has four slide-out sections, which expandthe useable area to 770 square feet. The EOC will be used in the case of a disaster in Claremont or can beloaned to nearby communities if the need arises.