The “Handful of Quarters” Bandit

It’s time again for your weekly “peek” into the Lytle Police Dept. Officers handled 59 calls for service last week, keep in mind that what really matters is the type of calls (seriousness)…not the number of calls. So 59 is a little more than average, I believe. Traffic stops numbered 93, with 54 resulting in citations and 39 being either verbal or written warnings.
Sgt. Hanson started off the week on Monday with a DWI arrest on Main St. Ofc. Pena followed up with another DWI arrest on Tuesday; his was on Main St. as well. They were both booked into the Atascosa Co. Jail. Lt. Dear and I detained a 16 year old male juvenile on an assault charge; he was transported to the Juvenile Detention Center in Jourdanton.
Property crime reports were minimal this week. A complainant reported a handgun as lost/missing/stolen; it might have disappeared while he was living in our city for a brief time. The “big” crime this week occurred at the H.E.B. Plus C-Store. An unknown crook cut the lock from the air compressor coin box and made off with the loot. How much? I’m not sure….it could be well over $10. These people need to do some research or something; he could have probably wandered around the parking lot and found that much money that fell out of people’s pockets. What does this fellow call himself, the “handful of quarters bandit”?
I guess you have heard that it’s “Rodeo Time in San Antonio.” For me it means we have two trail rides that pass through town and we provide an escort to get them through safely, we have been doing it for years. We handled that last Wednesday, we didn’t have any problems and if it weren’t for some evidence the horses left on the road, you would never know they passed through. I had the great idea of Ofc. Lopez and I being on our bicycles, I figured we could move among the horses easier and let the officers in vehicles take care of the front and back. Well it was good in theory, but it ended up being really, really cold for the first batch in the morning. I was too hard headed to change my plans, but it got colder in the afternoon so by the time the second batch came through, I jumped into a truck.
That is about as close to the Rodeo as I will get, same for Fiesta. I think these are great events, but I have plenty of projects to occupy my time. All my memories of those events involve walking around in the cold and mud, you can throw in somebody spilling beer on me and you get the picture. Now if I was some sort of parade grand marshal or something like that, I might make an exception.