The week in review – We had 44 calls for service and 7 of those were for false alarms (that’s 16% of our calls this week). Officers filed 28 Class C citations with the municipal court, 10 of those were for speeding. We only had one arrest and it was for DWI as well as possession of marijuana. The driver was moving at a high rate of speed when Officers Diaz and Guzman spotted her. She had no idea of where she was; we are just fortunate that it ended in an arrest instead of a deadly collision.
On the property crime side we had two thefts reported, that included a wallet taken off the counter at the Cricket store on Main St. and a guest at Best Western reported costume jewelry valued at $5 was taken from his room. Lt. Dear handled that case and actually recovered the costume jewelry but the victim declined to file charges. Lt. Dear also took a report of a burglary of habitation at a vacant residence that is being remodeled in the 18000 Blk. of FM 2790 N. A coil of copper wire and a spool of electrical wire were taken. We have photos of the suspect vehicles. One appears to be a newer model Chevy Camaro, light in color with a dark colored hood and a sunroof. The second is an unknown year model light in color Chevy extra cab with a black tool box.
Officers took reports of two incidents of criminal mischief too. I responded to the 14700 Blk. of Main St. after a resident reported some unknown vehicle knocked down her mailbox.Unfortunately about all I could do was remove the damaged mailbox from the roadway. I could never just damage somebody’s property and just drive off, but I guess there is no shortage of people who think nothing of it. The second criminal mischief was a bit more interesting. Ofc. Petrash took a report that someone tore down the gender signs on both the male and female restrooms at the John Lott Park concession stand. I sure hope this criminal act was simply a misguided young person’s idea of fun during a boring hot summer, but could it be more? I try not to inject myself (in my official capacity) into politics but could this be related to the controversial “Bathroom Bill” in state legislature we have been hearing about? Maybe those that are opposed to it have chosen our city park as a battleground and by tearing down those gender signs it was a symbol “like raising the flag of their cause.” Meanwhile the Park maintenance guy tells me it will cost about $200 to replace the signs and the paint that came off with them. The morale of the story is that no matter what happens in Austin, Lytle is out $200.