We received this last night about 10:45 from "Rainy."  And just so you know –  maybe it's just TV cop speak, who knows? — a "hot burglary" means the burglary is going on while there are people at home — eek!

I thought I'd drop you an email since you have been reporting on the rash of burglaries going on in Altadena lately.

We live on N. Casitas Ave. in Altadena.  Our house was just burgled, while we were home. I have called the sheriff's dept and a deputy is coming to take the report at some point tonight, though we're not sure when they're going to get here.

This happened within about a 30 minute timespan while we were all in the front of the house making dinner, and the thief came through a rear outside door and burgled the back of the house. A laptop was stolen. That's all that we know of, nothing else that we've discovered but you know how it is, sometimes you don't realize something is missing right away.  A friend arriving at our home during this time period saw someone exiting our driveway, wearing a black hoodie (hood up) and carrying a backpack. We don't know if he had an accomplice, only one person was spotted. I am wondering if the house had been cased previously, because the door that was used is behind a gate and not visible from the street.  We have a dog, too, which you think would be a deterrent. Naturally the dog did not bark, because she was in the kitchen with the family.

Thanks very much for keeping the blog, it's such a great resource. I discovered it during the Station fire and added it to my blogfeed to stay informed. Really wish I were not emailing you to tell you about this!

And on a similar note, we chased away some guys who were trying to pull the "fertilizer scam" on us yesterday afternoon at Altadenablog World Headquarters.  Strange days out there! 

Sheriff's phone is 798-1131.