David Markland of LA Metblogs posted this above video from a surveillance camera at the his apartment building in Hollywood. A man dressed up as a construction worker walks up to a bike, cuts the bolt of the lock and steals it shortly after 8:00 a.m. last week Tuesday. As Markland notes in his post, his local neighborhood council representative said this is occurring around town with DWP workers. In Sherman Oaks last week,......

The former owner of Images of East and West art gallery located at 12627 West Washington Boulevard in Venice. After fleeing Los Angeles in 2002 with art property from more than 45 artists and customers, Kajorn Lekhakul Howard was arrested during a routine traffic stop in Seagoville, Texas. "Art theft detectives recovered over 290 stolen artworks from storage locations in the Dallas area," LAPD statement said. "The detectives transported the art back to Los Angeles......

Copper thefts in Los Angeles could no longer be the only crime of desperation surging the city. With gas prices increasing everyday (the latest: nearly $4.11/gallon of regular unleaded), so are sales of lockable gas caps at auto stores. "We're going to start seeing some people who are normally good do bad things in these tough economic times," said LAPD Senior Lead Officer Ron Carter at a neighborhood watch meeting a few weeks ago in......

Photo by nailmaker via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr 22-year-old Alan Hamai from Redondo Beach had just been awarded his degree in Anthropology from UC Berkeley and was celebrating when he fell to his death from the third floor of a dorm building. Hamai is the second student from SoCal to die at UCB this month; two weeks ago Christopher Wootton was fatally stabbed after a party on campus. The folks at......

Photo by susan catherine via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr A meeting last night in Oxnard brought out hundreds of parents angered over the recent shooting death of 15-year-old Lawrence King at the hands of a fellow teenager. They called for more vigilant security on campus and for more help for students who suffer from bullying. A multi-vehicle accident earlier this afternoon had two lanes of the 405 in Westwood shut down.......

Post-holiday shopping took a gruesome turn in the parking lot of the Target store in Gardena last month when three women robbed another woman of her earrings and slashed her face. According to CBS2.com: The victim had returned to her vehicle after shopping at the Target in the 2100 block of West Redondo Beach Boulevard at 2:27 p.m. Dec. 27th when a woman reached through the driver's door window and yanked a three-inch gold hoop......

Thefts of catalytic converters, according to one cop in El Segundo, have reached "epidemic" levels, the LA Times reports. Helpfully, the paper also includes instructions on how to go about stealing your own: Some thieves use saws, but the preferred weapon in Southern California is a ratchet with a 14-millimeter socket. The thief crawls under the car and unfastens the bolts holding the converter, a process that accomplished crooks can complete in 90 seconds.......

California Highway Patrol Officer Joshua Blackburn, charged with stealing $1 million worth of cocaine being held as evidence, has had his arraignment postponed at his lawyer's request until early next month, KTLA is reporting. The 32-year-old Murietta man (pictured) has been with the CHP for six years, and remains in the Orange County Jail on $4 million bail. His arraignment had been scheduled for yesterday, but the alleged drug nabber's attorney has stated that he......