Well the biggest news is that the recent onslaught of tire slashing has come to an end. While our weekly report is scattered with about 17 additional reports they all occurred on Sunday night or early Monday morning of the prior week (I reported on most of these last week). As word got out people came forward and reported it, many thought they just had a bad tire or hit something in the road. We have numerous suspects identified and are conducting follow-up investigation. We have reviewed lots of security camera footage and interviewed a few witnesses, I am confident we know who the responsible persons are. This is an ongoing investigation and I’m limited as to how much information I can release. Due to the number of victims (like maybe 30!) it will take a while to complete this investigation. I appreciate my staff and especially Sgt. Hanson for his temporary transfer to night shift to provide additional coverage during this crime spree. It appears as we originally believed all the incidents occurred over a period of three nights.
While we were out beating the bushes for our “tire slashers” we came up with some other arrests. These arrests included a suspect for driving while license invalid w/no insurance (booked into Atascosa Co. Jail), drug paraphernalia (cited and released) and a warrant service off a traffic stop for possession of controlled substance (booked into Atascosa Co. Jail).
Wait, I’m not through yet. We also got two more warrant arrests off of traffic stops – one out of Bexar Co. for unauthorized use of a motor vehicle, he had some weed on him too and another was out of La Salle County for criminal trespass (they both got booked into the Atascosa Co. Jail).
We had two nice simple shoplifting arrests too. One at the Family Dollar, the guy took canned chicken, socks, and some markers. Not sure what he planned for the evening. Now our H.E.B. Plus shoplifter guy had an interesting combo himself, he took a car battery booster pack and an ice cream cake. He was in a real hurry when the officer caught him. I guess he didn’t want the cake to melt. It was a birthday cake so maybe the booster pack was a birthday gift. Both of those guys were cited and released. Sgt. Hanson also stopped a newer model Camaro by Lytle State Bank and the occupants all fled, Hanson was able to catch a juvenile female (because she tripped not because he is fast). Why did they all run? Well it was a stolen car out of San Antonio. He also attempted to stop another car and they too fled into the dead end of Mesquite St. A passenger was arrested for evading arrest or detention but the driver wasn’t captured, luckily Sgt. Hanson recognized him as a regular customer. Lt. Dear took a report of a stolen vehicle from Lytle Apartments but luckily the guy who took it dumped it in San Antonio undamaged. That’s because he knew the victim and I guess he didn’t mind stealing her car but he didn’t want to damage it, that’s a nice car thief for you.
So with all the tire damage reports and arrests we ended up with 73 service calls this week and 43 cases filed with the municipal court. I am pretty sure I will never say anything about how our summers can be slow and enjoyable. I didn’t even have time to check with our code compliance man to see if he has been hard at work enforcing the stage one water restrictions. We sure are giving our new reporting system a workout!