Another week has come and gone at Lytle PD. This “weird” summer is flying by; I guess that is a good thing. Officers responded to or generated, 66 service calls. These were the most common calls this past week – 9 were traffic-related (vehicle accidents and reports of reckless drivers) and 8 were for alarms. We also had 8 for assist agency (ACSO and EMS) and 7 for vehicle lockouts.
We only had one arrest. Sgt. Hanson was investigating a crash on IH-35 and determined one of the involved persons had an active assault warrant out of Bexar Co. He was transported to the Atascosa Co. Jail. Talk about bad luck, you rear-end somebody on the interstate and end up going to jail as well.
We had some interesting property crimes reported last week. The owner of H&S Cream Pop on Main St. reported that somebody climbed up on his roof and took his DirecTV dish! They even took the cinder blocks he used to stabilize the mount. A Bruce St. resident reported that a window AC unit was taken off of the front porch. It was just sitting there, it was not installed or in use. How funny that during the winter you could set that out by the road and nobody would take it, but let the August heat attack us and now it is a hot commodity. The Dollar General reported a shoplifting event; the male suspect took off with about $45 worth of food. On Sunday afternoon H.E.B. Plus reported the theft of 12 bags of deer corn. Our officers were able to identify the suspects who returned and paid for the corn. I am glad our officers put a stop to these “Deer Corn” bandits, the last thing we need is a bunch of overweight deer. The last property crime (criminal mischief) occurred at the Yumm Market on Main St. (the old Diamond Shamrock / Valero). A customer got upset when her credit card was declined; she ripped the card reader off the counter. I would be in better financial shape if my credit cards got declined.
We hired a new officer! Anthony Lopez is a recent graduate of the SWTJC Police Academy in Uvalde. He started on the streets last Thursday; he will be in a field training program for several months. He fills a slot that has been vacant for about 1 ½ years.
I had an eventful time on a long stretch of days off. We did a day trip to Mustang Island State Park and spent about 3 hours at the beach. We had a great time. State Parks are all limiting the number of people they let in and reservations are required. We have had no problem with crowds or social distancing on our visits. I don’t think my parents ever took us to a state park when I was growing up. The only trail I ever hiked on was the one from the game room to the food court at the mall.
I wish that was how my story ended, but I wasn’t so lucky. We got home and I was tired, started feeling a little weird. I hit the sack early, but I got up around 1:30 AM on Friday morning and visited the kitchen. I started feeling strange so I thought I better wake my wife up. I never made it, I guess I passed out and hit my head on a door frame. She heard the commotion and found me in a pool of blood along with my broken eyeglasses ($800). She called 911 and Atascosa Co. EMS (Lytle Unit), as well as Sgt. Hanson, responded. The Atascosa Co. Sheriff’s dispatchers were great as well as the EMS staff. EMS asked what hospital and I went with Southwest General. It is a short ride up IH-35. I was also thinking that Mama Margie’s is nearby and is open 24 hours, so if I got released and was hungry I could order a Mike’s Super Plate. The hospital staff was great; I ended up with 9 staples in my head! The doctor said the staples wouldn’t be “too bad”; well it wasn’t that great either. They believe I brought this on when I jumped in a cold shower and there was a reaction with my overheated body. I got home by 5:30 AM and I am doing well. My 12-year-old son sees me on Friday morning and the first thing he says is “We could have gone to Disney for what this beach day trip will end up costing.” He sounds just like me…