Ventura County Sheriff's Department

A 48-year-old Santa Paula woman was arrested for embezzlement from her employer where she worked as a cashier during the month of November of 2022.

The Chevron Gas Station discovered various amounts of cash had been unaccounted for over the month of November totaling a loss of approximately $12,000. This crime was reported to the Fillmore Police Department. Fillmore station investigators identified the suspect as Lupe Mims, a cashier from the gas station. Mims committed the crime by falsifing money drops. Instead of depositing the cash into the safe, Mims pocketed the money for herself.

On December 12, 2022, Mims was located and arrested for the crime. Mims was subsequently booked into custody at the Ventura County Pre-Trial Detention Facility for embezzlement. She remains in custody with her bail set at $ 20,000. Her next court date is set for December 14, 2022.

The Ventura County Sheriff’s Office and Fillmore Police Department is committed to maintaining the safety of all residents by continued community partnerships. Anyone with information pertaining to this crime or any other crimes are urged to contact The Fillmore Police Station @ (805) 524-2233 or the below listed detective. The reporting party may remain anonymous.

Nature of Incident: Suspect Arrested for Embezzlement
Report Number: RB# 22-158833
Location: Chevron Gas Station
704 West Ventura Street, Fillmore, CA
Date & Time: December 12, 2022
Unit(s) Responsible: Fillmore Patrol Services / Fillmore Detective Bureau
(S)uspects, (V)ictims, (P)arty, (D)ecedent, City of Residence, Age
(S) Lupe Cecile Deluca Mims, Santa Paula, 48
Prepared by: Detective Sergeant Will Hollowell
Approved by: Captain Garo Kuredjian

Ventura County Crime Stoppers will pay up to $1,000 reward for information, which leads to the arrest and criminal complaint against the person(s) responsible for this crime. The caller may remain anonymous. The call is not recorded. Call Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS (8477).

By Linda Nunes

Civic Pride Volunteers have chosen Sheila & Bob Mumme’s home at 1171 Shady Lane, for the Christmas “Yard of the Month” and they received a $50 gift card to Otto & Sons Nursery. They were planning to purchase a plant or plants for an empty place in the front, so look forward to getting some advice at the nursery.

The Mummes have lived in their home for 28 years & this was their first home. Bob does all the outside decorations and Sheila picks & arranges the signs & porch decorations. For their first Christmas, they made wooden painted figures of Mr. & Mrs. Claus with the North Pole mailbox seen in the photo & cheerful barrel footstools for their chairs.

Be sure to go out to the Tradition’s neighborhood to see their classy & well- balanced display, as well as other decorated homes in the courts.

If you are taking a tour around town, honorable mentions would be 343 Foothill, 2nd & Central Ave., 371 & 997 B St. Special previous winners to view are located at 910 Taylor Lane, 408 Robin Court, & 408 Edgewood.

Civic Pride Volunteers appreciate the generosity of Otto & Sons Nursery, providing the gift awards since at least 2003. All are welcome to join in our group which will meet again, January 18, 2023 at 1:30pm in the City Hall Council Chambers. Come help us enrich this already great little town!

Katharine McDowell, Branch Manager of the Fillmore Library, gave an update on the new expansion. Our library is part of the Ventura County Library system which consists of 12 active libraries and a mobile library. The Fillmore Library is now double in size with study rooms, a community room which can seat 50 people, an innovation lab and homework stations with laptops, besides the usual shelves of books for children and adults. The Friends of the Library donated 10 laptops and fund all of Katharine’s programs for the children and more. Library hours are Monday & Tuesday, 2:00pm to 7pm, Wednesday, 10am to 5pm, and Friday & Saturday, noon to 5pm. It is a wonderful new building with something for everyone!

Please join the Fillmore Unified School District in congratulating Barbara Vazquez on being appointed to the position of Director, Child Nutrition Services. Barbara Has worked at Fillmore Unified School District for 18 years. She worked as an Account
Clerk II for the Child Nutrition Services Department for four years and as the Child Nutrition Services Manager for the last six. She has an Associates of Arts degree and Certification in Diet and Nutrition. Barbara’s goal, along with the entire Child Nutrition Team, is to continue to serve healthy, nutritious, appealing meals that meet or exceed the state and federal nutrition standards. We look forward to Barbara’s leadership in this new role. Congratulations Barbara! Courtesy Fillmore Unified School District Blog: https://www.blog.fillmoreusd.org

Courtesy Fillmore Fire Department

This year’s annual Fillmore Community Holiday Giveaway will be held Saturday, December 17th from 9 AM – 12 PM at the City of Fillmore Fire Station, 711 Landeros Lane. This is the annual event where holiday commodities are given to the children who reside within the Fillmore Unified School District boundaries. COVID-19 restrictions have been relaxed and the event will be “in-person”. Anyone who is sick is asked to not attend and arrangements may be made for home delivery. Commodities given will be age-appropriate toys, new jackets/coats, reading books and socks. As is customary, a holiday bag of groceries will also be available for each family while supply last. Santa will be available for a picture with each child. As a reminder, this event is only for children who reside within the Fillmore Unified School District boundaries, you must provide proof of residency within the School District such as a utility bill, report card or driver’s license.

This year’s sponsors of the event include our local Fillmore Police and Fire Departments, Santa Clara Valley Legal Aid, One Step A La Vez, Soroptimist International of Fillmore, Rotary International of Fillmore, Fillmore Lions Club, Ventura County Deputy Sheriff’s Association, Fillmore Citizen’s Patrol, Fillmore Women’s Service Club, Fillmore Friends of the Library, Super A, Salvation Army, the Fillmore Fire Foundation and numerous other generous personal and business donors. Our sponsor list will be updated week to week.

If you would like to help donate to the Fillmore Community Holiday Giveaway, you may give new toys, socks, reading books or canned food; drop boxes are located at the Fillmore Police Station and at the Fillmore City Fire Station. Monetary donations are preferred this year to reduce person to person contact; checks may be made out to “The Fillmore Fire Foundation” with a notation of “Holiday Giveaway”. Donations may be mailed to Fillmore Fire Foundation, PO Box 331, Fillmore, CA 93016 or for drop off, please contact Keith Gurrola (805) 815-0328.

Case #: 2021030478

District Attorney Erik Nasarenko has announced the filing of charges against a group of poachers and wildlife traffickers known as the “E-Bike Crew.”

Seven people have been charged with 21 counts of filing a false or forged document, conspiracy, receiving stolen property, unlawful possession of untagged bear, and animal abuse or cruelty. On December 5, 2022, six of the seven defendants were arraigned in the Ventura County Superior Court.

California Department of Fish & Wildlife investigated the “E-Bike Crew” discovering that they worked with Lizette’s Market in Piru to fraudulently reprint hunting licenses and tags. The six-member wildlife trafficking organization (“WTO”) is accused of conspiring with Lizette’s Market beginning in June 2019 through October 2021, allegedly producing the false and fake tags to hunt and take more deer, pigs and bears than legally allowed by state law.

Martin Bravo Sr. (DOB 04/14/63), of Oxnard, Martin M. Bravo (DOB 05/13/92), of Oxnard, Walfre Lopez y. Lopez (DOB 06/14/84), of Oxnard, Gilberto Lopez Hernandez (DOB 02/15/88), of Thousand Oaks, Jaime Mendoza Avila (DOB 10/02/81), of Porterville, and Cristian Lopez Perez (DOB 02/11/91), of Los Angeles, are the charged members of the WTO. Juventino Reyes Guerrera (DOB 09/11/78), of Piru, is facing the same charges and was the operator of Fish & Wildlife licensing equipment located at Lizette’s Market.
There is an active arrest warrant in the amount of $200,000 for Defendant Lopez y Lopez. The other six defendants are in custody and being held on $200,000 bail in the Ventura County Jail. The next scheduled court appearance is December 7, 2022, at 1:30 p.m. in courtroom 13 of the Ventura County Superior Court.

Advertisement from the Piru News, April 24, 1930.
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Sanitary Food Market circa 1936.
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Pete’s Sanitary Barbershop circa 1920.
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Courtesy Fillmore Historical Museum

Correction from the last “Did You Know?” column. Fillmore Rotary began May 19, 1924 the main Rotary organization did begin 1905. Thank you to Martha Richardson.

When avocadoes first began to be grown in the area, not being sure how to serve them Alice Moore Milton served the pit to visitors throwing away the flesh.

In 1912, Fillmore Billiard and Amusement Parlor advertised “hot and cold baths at all hours.”

At various times, Fillmore not only had the Sanitary Dairy, but a Sanitary Market, Sanitary Barber and Sanitary Bakery.

J. A. Grimes of Grimes Canyon note, was the first person to own a typewriter about 1905. He complained, “the d--- thing can’t spell.”

Carl Caswell “C. C.” Elkins holds several “firsts” for Fillmore: first owner of a general store; first insurance agent; first notary public; first to ship oranges out by train; first to manufacture olive oil; first justice of the peace. There are probably some left out.

Fillmore’s first street lights were strung across Central Avenue between Stephenson’s Market and the Rood Harmonson Store on the north side of Main Street in 1907.

John Galvin was Fillmore’s first city attorney in 1914 after incorporation. He had graduated law school in 1910. When asked how he was chosen with little experience to be city attorney, he replied, “It happened I was in the right place at the right time to draw up the incorporation papers and become the attorney. I had personality, obvious and unimpeachable character and I was the only attorney in town.”

Fillmore’s first undertaker, E. A. French, also owned the Outlet Novelty Store at 330 Central Avenue.

Gold was discovered in 1842 at the San Feliciano tributary of Piru Creek, by Francisco Lopez who had trained as a mineralogist at a university in Sonora, Mexico. This as six years before it was found at Sutter’s Mill.

The William Shiells family donated the land for the Veteran’s Memorial Building and Library as well as Shiells Park.

J. P. McIntyre, a Sespe beekeeper in the 1880s, named his daughters after flowers: Lily, Pansy, Myrtle, Violet, Iris and Flora. His son was named Robert.

The first paved sidewalk was installed by George Tighe in front of his store in 1909. By 1917 there was 5 miles of sidewalk with curbing in Fillmore.

For twenty years (probably with the collusion of fellow Rotarian and Postmaster J K L Schwartz) Frank Erskine answered the local children’s letters to Santa Claus.

In the early 1930s Piru had three barbershop/pool hall combinations – Ideal Billiard Parlor and Barbershop owned by T. H. Green; Belty’s Barbershop (with 3 pool tables) owned by R. O. Belty; and Ruiz’s Barbershop (which also had card tables) owned by G. T. Ruiz.