5 arrested for fraud, identity theft and stealing mail at Glendale apartment complex

Five people were arrested this week following a lengthy investigation into a scheme involving mail theft, fraud and identity theft at a Glendale apartment complex, according to police.

In a news release shared by the Glendale Police Department, officers said that their investigation began after they received multiple reports of people who were accessing and removing mail from various apartment mailboxes at a complex in the 500 block of W. Colorado Street. 

"The suspects were witnessed removing mail from mailboxes belonging to other residents," the release said. 

While investigating the claims, detectives said that they were able to identify multiple suspects and connect them to specific apartment units at the complex. 

"Detectives learned that the suspects were using other individuals' personal identifying information to fraudulently obtain credit cards, which were then mailed to apartment units within the complex," the release said. "The investigation further revealed that the suspects had tampered with mailbox keyholes and replaced them with 'dummy' keyholes, allowing them to gain unauthorized access to the mailboxes."

All five of the suspects were arrested on Thursday when search warrants were executed at the apartment complex. Police identified them as Glendale residents Razmik Barseghyan, 36, Robert Poghosyan, 27, Vahan Kalashyan, 35, Armen Harutyunyan, 26 and Artyom Militonyan, 27. 

While serving the warrants, officers said that they found a "significant quantity" of personal identifying information belonging to other people, credit card re-encoding devices, cash, gold and numerous credit cards. 

Each was booked at the Glendale Police Jail on various fraud, identity theft and burglary-related charges, police said, noting that they plan to present the case to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office for filing consideration in the coming days. 

Anyone who knows more was urged to contact Glendale PD's Financial Crimes Unit at 818-548-4840.