Nearly a dozen bronze street lamp poles stolen in Pasadena

About a mile south of the Rose Bowl Stadium, a peaceful Pasadena thoroughfare draws eyes by its manicured lawns and picturesque properties.

But neighbors are focused on what’s missing from the view and police want to know who’s responsible.

“When you walk up and down the street, you see these things all over the place,” Doug Devos, a resident, said. 

Dozens of century-old bronze streetlight poles lining Orange Grove Boulevard are now a target for thieves, according to Pasadena police. City spokesperson Lisa Derderian said 11 poles have been stolen in the last 10 days.

All of them between midnight and 4 a.m. just around the time Devos goes out for his nightly walk.

“I was on Bellefontaine and a truck went by and it was very loud clanging and it had a trailer behind it. So I sorta noticed it and I thought that’s weird,” Devos said. 

When he turned onto Orange Grove Boulevard, he saw the truck pull into a driveway.

“He had no business being there,  I mean it’s late at night,” Devos said. “Only one person got out of the truck and he was very much casing it and wrapping something around it.”

Devos says he went home to call 911, and when he returned, the truck was gone but the pole was still there with a chain left behind.

“Apparently that didn’t work for them so they went to another spot just down the block and took that one,” Devos said. “That’s life, I’ve lived in NY for many years and you see all kinds of stuff.”

Detectives were hit with deja-vu after continuous copper wire thefts last year followed by a group of bandits targeting bronze plaques a few months ago.

"They take it, they can turn it in quickly for cash and that’s why our detectives are going to try to target the middleman, you know where are they fencing this?" Derderian said. “We really want to catch these people for grand theft and vandalism."