Where do you go to find a fugitive wanted for identity theft, forgery and grand theft in Orange County? How about floating in a canoe on Big Bear Lake? Yes, law enforcement is going to have to add another venue to hard-target searches of every gas station, residence, warehouse, farmhouse, henhouse, outhouse and doghouse. That's because renting a canoe is what finally did in 53-year-old Glenda Lee Boland.
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Let's take the events in order, shall we?
In 1997, Boland pleaded guilty to burglary in Riverside County.
In 1998, Boland pleaded guilty to obtaining money by false pretenses in San Bernardino County.
In 2010, Boland pleaded guilty in Orange County to identity theft (twice), forgery and grand theft. But her probation was revoked in 2012, a warrant was issued for her arrest and she hadn't been seen in this parts by authorities since.
As the Riverside Press-Enterprise reports, Boland was apparently living in the community of Fawnskin, which is in the San Bernardino Mountains on the north side of Big Bear Lake.
But it was in nearby Twin Peaks where she allegedly stole a woman's wallet out of a parked vehicle on July 20. The victim reported the theft to San Bernardino County sheriff's deputies, which began tracking use of the lady's credit cards at businesses all around the lake.
After a stolen card was used to purchase a canoe and boat permit in Big Bear City, investigators checked surveillance video of a boat ramp that Boland had apparently used to launch the canoe onto the lake. They were able to make out the license number on Boland's vehicle, and that eventually led deputies to Boland's Fawnskin residence, where it is claimed the ill-gotten boat was found leaning against her home.
She is alleged to have darted into her pad when she saw deputies closing in, but they are reported to have gotten her, the lady's stolen wallet and–lookie here!–methamphetamine. (Dibs on the new cable TV show Breaking Petty.)
Boland was later booked into the West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga and held in lieu of $50,000 bail for alleged possession of stolen property, fraudulent use of a credit card, false impersonation and possession of a controlled substance. She pleaded not guilty to all counts at arraignment.
Email: mc****@oc******.com. Twitter: @MatthewTCoker. Follow OC Weekly on Twitter @ocweekly or on Facebook!
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.