Cash

An armed man robbed a Burbank gas station Sunday night, and Burbank police are looking for leads. Just after 10 p.m., a man entered A to Z Service Station on the 2000 block of North Glenoaks Boulevard, brandished a blue steel handgun and demanded cash from the clerk, according to Burbank Police Lt. Eddie Ruiz. The man took an undetermined amount of cash and fled, according to police. The clerk was not injured. The suspect is described as an African-American, about 26 years old and roughly 200 pounds.

Police are investigating the theft of roughly $150 from Anahit Bakery  in Burbank, officials said. On Friday night, an unknown number of suspects smashed the bakery's window, broke the register and fled with the cash. “It's not the first time,” bakery manager Simon Bagayan said Monday, adding that the shop has been burglarized three times since opening 20 years ago at 2300 West Victory Blvd. “It's not much; [thankfully] they didn't destroy anything else.” No suspects had been arrested as of Monday afternoon, according to Burbank Police Lt. Eddie Ruiz.

A woman made off with about $300 in cash from IKEA on Tuesday after grabbing it from an open register, police said. The woman, described as being between 40 and 50 years old, approached the cash register at about 8:20 p.m. in the downtown Burbank store to purchase a candle, Sgt. Darin Ryburn said. “She gave the cashier the money, and when the cashier went to give her change, the woman fled with cash from the register after a struggle with the cashier,” Ryburn said. No injuries were reported as a result of the scuffle.

Ka-ching! That's become a familiar sound in the San Fernando Valley slugfest between Reps. Howard Berman and Brad Sherman. Together, the two Democrats have spent more than $9 million through Sept. 30, according to the latest campaign finance reports.  Democrat Adam Schiff and Republican Jim Rogan set a record for a California House race by spending $11.5 million in their 2000 Glendale-area contest won by Schiff. Heading into the crucial final weeks before the Nov. 6 election, Sherman had more cash on hand  than Berman -- $1.8 million to about $394,000, according to the reports.

Burbank police are investigating a home burglary in which two computers, jewelry and cash were stolen late Saturday night, police said. Thieves reportedly entered the Burbank home - located on the 1900 block of North Parish Place - through an unlocked window sometime after 6:45 p.m. Saturday, said Burbank Police Sgt. Darin Ryburn. The suspects also made off with a set of car keys, Ryburn added. The residents returned home at around 2:30 a.m. Sunday and noticed their house had been ransacked.

“The Morini Strad,” the surprise hit playing at the Colony Theatre in Burbank, has generated enough revenue for the cash-strapped venue to produce the next play of its season, the thriller “I'll Be Back Before Midnight,” according to company officials. But the theater still needs to raise $500,000 to continue operations and have enough money for an endowment to sustain itself, they warned. “We've always just lived close to the edge,” said Barbara Beckley, the theater's artistic director.

An 18-year-old Arcadia man was arrested Wednesday after allegedly attempting to cash a stolen business check for $40,000, police said. The man, Philip Cooper, allegedly entered Money Mart on West Victory Boulevard just before 3 p.m. with the stolen check from Mills Property in Arcadia. “He was not an employee there,” said Burbank police Sgt. Darin Ryburn. The clerk determined the check was stolen and called the police. Officers arrested Cooper as he left the store without the check or money.

A Burbank man pleaded not guilty this week to robbing a bank inside Pavilions Market last month. Jimmy Barbarino, 44, was arrested after getting in a traffic accident May 6 in Glendale, said Burbank Sgt. John Pfrommer. A warrant was out for Barbarino’s arrest after he was identified as a suspect in the May 2 bank robbery. He is being held in lieu of $90,000 and is scheduled to appear for a preliminary hearing May 23 in Los Angeles County Superior Court. Barbarino allegedly told the bank teller inside the grocery store at 1110 W. Alameda Ave. that he had a handgun inside his black backpack when he demanded the cash.

Police are searching for three armed men who after falsely identifying themselves as FBI agents, forced their way into a home and stole $20,000 in cash early Wednesday morning. At about midnight Wednesday, the men - who police said wore ski masks and dark clothing while armed with handguns - yelled, “FBI!” as they forced their way into the home on the 1000 block of Fairmount Road, Burbank Police Sgt. Robert Quesada said. The men pushed a man, his wife and their teenage son to the floor, yelling, “Give us the cash, give us the cash,” Quesada said.

Authorities continue to search for a man who robbed the Chase Bank at 100 N. First St. last week of $50,000 in cash. Around 5 p.m. on April 27, a Latino man handed a bank teller a note printed on the back of a transaction receipt asking for the cash, FBI spokeswoman Lourdes Arocho said. The teller handed over the cash and the man placed it into either a pouch or purse he was carrying before leaving the building, according to a Burbank police report. The man was between 40 and 50 years old, 5 feet 8 inches tall with a medium build and dark complexion.

WHITTIER - The Burbank High boys' water polo season endured a wild conclusion to its 2013 season. Essentially, the Bulldogs lost their CIF Southern Section Division V wild card playoff game against Whittier twice. The Cardinals seemingly defeated Burbank by a goal in overtime. Each team vacated the pool, Whittier posed for celebratory pictures and the Bulldogs showered and toweled off. Then word came that a mistake had been made. Whittier's Jose Avila had received his third exclusion 25 seconds into the first of two three-minute overtime periods.

Burbank police are investigating a home burglary in which two computers, jewelry and cash were stolen late Saturday night, police said. Thieves reportedly entered the Burbank home - located on the 1900 block of North Parish Place - through an unlocked window sometime after 6:45 p.m. Saturday, said Burbank Police Sgt. Darin Ryburn. The suspects also made off with a set of car keys, Ryburn added. The residents returned home at around 2:30 a.m. Sunday and noticed their house had been ransacked.

A 44-year-old Arleta woman was arrested Wednesday afternoon after allegedly trying to cash a $900 forged check at Community Bank in Burbank, police said. After responding to the bank at 2800 North Hollywood Way, police discovered that the woman - identified as Irene Chigula - had two outstanding traffic warrants, said police Sgt. Darin Ryburn. Chigula was also allegedly in possession of two stolen identification cards and suspected methamphetamine, Ryburn said. Chigula was released after posting $50,000 bail and is due in court next month.

Times are tough for KCET-TV. The former PBS outlet announced Friday that it would lay off 22 employees, or nearly one-fifth of its staff, as it completes a merger with the Bay Area satellite provider Link Media. Now called KCETLink, the Burbank-based nonprofit entity is scrambling to reposition itself as a "transmedia" company that provides content to mobile devices and other platforms as well as televisions. The company has hired a well known PR firm, Rogers & Cowan, to help manage its image during the transition.  The harsh belt-tightening has been dictated by poor financial results.

Spending by political action committees has become increasingly common in Burbank city and school board races this year, apparently catching the candidates who benefited from that spending off guard. School board candidates David Dobson and Charlene Tabet said they were surprised to learn that two committees had spent more than $26,000 in promotional material supporting their campaigns - far more than any school board candidate has raised so far in this year's race. Both political action committees belong to the educational reform group StudentsFirst, led by former District of Columbia schools chancellor Michelle Rhee.

After holding steady in January, home prices in Burbank surged again last month, continuing a months-long rise in prices as a severely limited number of homes for sale has created fierce competition among buyers, according to the latest real estate report. The median price for a single-family home rose almost 15% from $460,000 in February 2012 to $527,750 last month, according to statistics compiled by Realtor Eric Benz with Dilbeck Real Estate in Burbank. The median price for a condominium also increased, from $337,500 a year ago to $375,443 last month, an 11% increase.

An 11-year-old girl walking home from school Monday ran away after two men offered her money from a car and she thought it was a ploy to get her closer, police said. The girl was walking home from Luther Burbank Middle School alone at around 3 p.m. when the “small, white, dirty” car pulled up to her at the intersection of Wyoming Avenue and Lima Street, said Burbank Police Sgt. Darin Ryburn. “Hey you! Want some money?” the man, who was a passenger in the car, yelled, according to police.

Burbank election candidates continued to beef up their campaign coffers during the last reporting period, which spanned through Feb. 9, just as ballots for Tuesday's primary began to arrive in Burbank homes. Candidate Bob Frutos continued to lead fundraising efforts among the six vying for a seat on the City Council, having amassed $5,182 between Jan. 13 and Feb. 9, records show. Incumbents Jess Talamantes and David Gordon followed closely behind him, having each raised nearly $3,900 over the same period.

A pair of strangers who tricked an 81-year-old Burbank woman into using her phone and restroom Thursday made off with $125 and jewelry, police said. At 1:10 p.m., the Burbank woman answered a knock at her door in the 800 block of Walnut Avenue, to find a woman asking to use the victim's phone. While the suspect was using the phone, the resident answered another knock at her door. This time is was a man asking to use the restroom, said Burbank Police Sgt. Darin Ryburn. The woman later told police she thought the pair was related.

Police are investigating a burglary in which cash and jewelry were stolen from a Burbank home on Friday. The incident marked the fifth daytime home burglary reported in Burbank in recent weeks. Sometime between 9 a.m. and noon, unknown suspects broke into a home in the 800 block of North Kenwood Street and stole an undetermined amount of cash and jewelry, said Burbank Police Lt. Eddie Ruiz. It's unknown how the suspects entered the residence, police said. The other four burglaries were reported in the 900 and 2600 blocks of North Brighton Street, the 1900 block of North Fairview Street and the 2100 block of North Buena Vista Street.