At least our call volume was down a good bit last week; we only handled 49 calls for service. Officers on the street conducted 63 traffic stops, which resulted in 43 drivers receiving citations and 20 lucky folks took home warnings.
While the volume of calls was down, the amount of activity was solid. We only had three property crimes reported but they were all significant. On Wednesday a Star Cross Trail resident reported that their 2010 Black Chevy P/U was stolen, it was left unlocked with the keys in it (it was recovered, see below). On Friday, a 16’ flatbed trailer was taken from a residence in the 15600 blk. of Main St. (just inside the Medina Co. line). On Sunday morning, an Ethan’s Crossing resident reported that their Gold 2017 Ford F250 was stolen. We were able to determine that the theft occurred between 10:35 PM on Saturday night and 1:35 AM on Sunday morning. That makes four vehicle thefts for the month of July. Two from businesses (Auto Zone & O’Reilly Auto Parts), one during the day from a residence near H.E.B. and the other during the night from a residence in Lake Shore Estates – opposite sides of town.
We took several trips to jail this past week. Ofc. D. Lopez made two possession of marijuana cases. One off of a traffic stop and the other off of a vehicle unlock (that’s a first I believe). On Thursday he responded to H.E.B. Plus for a child that was locked in a vehicle, upon his arrival the child unlocked the vehicle. While he was checking on the child he detected the odor of marijuana and conducted a probable cause search, a bag of marijuana was found. The driver of the vehicle was arrested and booked into the jail in Jourdanton. Later that night Ofc. Lopez was fresh back from his trip to the jail when he observed a vehicle that failed to dim the high beams. He attempted to stop it and it fled……a very short chase came to an end on Mesquite St. The truck was our “stolen” one from the prior day on Star Cross Trail. It was recovered and two fellows were arrested. See, they had just stolen the truck the day before so I’m sure they didn’t know how to operate the dimmer switch (these newer vehicles are so complicated). Early Saturday morning, Capt. Reyes got a report of a hit and run at the Whataburger. The vehicle fled the scene and had the misfortune of running a stop sign right in front of Ofc. Pena. The driver was jailed for DWI and both passengers were cited for public intoxication and released to a family member. On Saturday morning, Sgt. Hanson conducted a traffic stop and determined the driver to have an invalid license (with prior convictions). He was booked in the Atascosa Co. Jail. Fast forward to 2:38 AM on Sunday morning – Cpl. Robison and Ofc. Pena responded to a disturbance on Cottage St. A female was arrested for assault causing bodily injury; she too was booked in the ACSO Jail. It was initially a verbal disturbance, the suspect waited for the officers to get there so they could see and record the actual physical assault. Well, it’s not normal, but it does make our case a little easier to prove. The final arrest of the week occurred on Sunday night, Lt. Dear and Ofc. Lopez cited a guy for public intoxication at the H.E.B. C-Store; he was released to a responsible adult.
I’m happy to announce that the city doesn’t have any big special events planned for at least two months. Please make note of the following dates, this is important stuff. Our National Night Out event will be Tuesday Oct. 1st at the Lytle Comm. Center. Make plans now to join us and get some free food, last year was our best yet and we hope to top it this year. After that it looks like our next big thing will be the ex-student’s biennial (I had to look that word up to make sure I got it right) homecoming parade which will be Saturday, Nov. 2; followed up by the City’s Christmas Hayride on Saturday, Nov. 30. Hopefully, by then, it will be a good bit cooler.