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There has been a pretty big increase in automobile related crimes in my area in the last couple of years. Less than two years ago there was a true rash of automobile break-ins in my neighbourhood. I did not know about it until one day I happened to see about seven police cars on my block. I asked what was going on, and I was told about the break-ins and that the police were there to show a presence. I do not know whether the police ever discovered who was breaking into the vehicles in the neighbourhood or not, but I rather doubt it.
Then, a few months later, my vehicle was vandalised. They pushed an old, old tire beneath the rear of my vehicle in order to jack it up so that they could steel my tires. They also broke into two locked petrol tanks and syphoned off all of the petrol. Sadly, I had just filled up the tank a day or two before. In the process of stealing the tires, they damaged the ABS. I had to replace my tires and have the vehicle repaired at a combined cost of $2,000.00.
At the same time my vehicle was vandalised, one of the shops I frequent on the corner of Hulen and I20 told me that there had been a rash of vehicle break-ins at the shopping centre's car park, and I was warned not to park in any of the spaces on the side of the building. I do not know if the police were able to find out who was breaking into the vehicles there or not, but I would not bet on it.
Then, as recently as last week, probably during the night or very early in the morning, someone hit my vehicle and ran. The driver hit my vehicle pretty hard. It could not be driven and had to be towed to the garage. The front suspension suffered damages totalling $1,100.00 plus tax. I have not gotten an estimate from a body shop, but the both AAA and the garage's mechanic opined that it had to be at least $3,500.00 worth of damage, probably more. Whoever hit my vehicle lost part of his bumper, which I have saved because it identifies the owner's car maker. I looked around the neighbourhood for the culprit's vehicle but could not find it. If the driver lives around here, he has either garaged the vehicle or taken it out of the neighbourhood. I reported it to the police, but there is nothing they can do without a license plate number or an eye witness who recognised the driver. He had to be either very drunk or very high to have hit my vehicle as I live on a wide street, and there was no other cars parked on my end of the block for more than half a block away.
Needless to say, I am very upset. Within the last two years I have accrued a loss of $2,000 from vandalism and now $1,100 from a hit and run, and another $3,000 to $4,000 or more if want to have the body work done. I do not feel the police are protecting us very well. I have complained to my police division and asked for more patrol, but nothing seems to have changed.
I would like to know your thoughts on this. Also, does anyone have any suggestions as to how I might find out who hit my vehicle and ran? I really want the miscreant caught. I was told the impact to my vehicle was great enough to have caused the driver's air bags to inflate. Too bad. Given that he chose to get behind the wheel of a automobile whilst either drunk out of his skull or higher than a kite, he deserved to be injured. He deserves to go to jail, too.
There has been a pretty big increase in automobile related crimes in my area in the last couple of years. Less than two years ago there was a true rash of automobile break-ins in my neighbourhood. I did not know about it until one day I happened to see about seven police cars on my block. I asked what was going on, and I was told about the break-ins and that the police were there to show a presence. I do not know whether the police ever discovered who was breaking into the vehicles in the neighbourhood or not, but I rather doubt it.
Then, a few months later, my vehicle was vandalised. They pushed an old, old tire beneath the rear of my vehicle in order to jack it up so that they could steel my tires. They also broke into two locked petrol tanks and syphoned off all of the petrol. Sadly, I had just filled up the tank a day or two before. In the process of stealing the tires, they damaged the ABS. I had to replace my tires and have the vehicle repaired at a combined cost of $2,000.00.
At the same time my vehicle was vandalised, one of the shops I frequent on the corner of Hulen and I20 told me that there had been a rash of vehicle break-ins at the shopping centre's car park, and I was warned not to park in any of the spaces on the side of the building. I do not know if the police were able to find out who was breaking into the vehicles there or not, but I would not bet on it.
Then, as recently as last week, probably during the night or very early in the morning, someone hit my vehicle and ran. The driver hit my vehicle pretty hard. It could not be driven and had to be towed to the garage. The front suspension suffered damages totalling $1,100.00 plus tax. I have not gotten an estimate from a body shop, but the both AAA and the garage's mechanic opined that it had to be at least $3,500.00 worth of damage, probably more. Whoever hit my vehicle lost part of his bumper, which I have saved because it identifies the owner's car maker. I looked around the neighbourhood for the culprit's vehicle but could not find it. If the driver lives around here, he has either garaged the vehicle or taken it out of the neighbourhood. I reported it to the police, but there is nothing they can do without a license plate number or an eye witness who recognised the driver. He had to be either very drunk or very high to have hit my vehicle as I live on a wide street, and there was no other cars parked on my end of the block for more than half a block away.
Needless to say, I am very upset. Within the last two years I have accrued a loss of $2,000 from vandalism and now $1,100 from a hit and run, and another $3,000 to $4,000 or more if want to have the body work done. I do not feel the police are protecting us very well. I have complained to my police division and asked for more patrol, but nothing seems to have changed.
I would like to know your thoughts on this. Also, does anyone have any suggestions as to how I might find out who hit my vehicle and ran? I really want the miscreant caught. I was told the impact to my vehicle was great enough to have caused the driver's air bags to inflate. Too bad. Given that he chose to get behind the wheel of a automobile whilst either drunk out of his skull or higher than a kite, he deserved to be injured. He deserves to go to jail, too.
Wow. You've had some bad luck. I haven't had much interaction with the police in my 5 or so years here, but what I have had left me with the impression that they were not terribly competent. Pretty frustrating, IMO.
Any chance you can park you car in a garage (or move somewhere that would enable you to at least not park in the street?) Best of luck, hopefully your bad stretch is over!
Well, in the first instance, my truck was parked well off of the street outside my backyard gate. The thieves came onto private property to steal the tires and the petrol. I have since moved from that property to another one.
In the second case, I have a driveway in front of the house, but my truck has been leaking a bit of transmission fluid, so I parked it on the street until I could get it repaired. I never would have dreamt that on a relatively quiet block such as this one that anything like this would happen. It is a totally anti-social individual who would operate a deadly machine such as an automobile whilst under the influence of alcohol or drugs. Given that he was willing to drive whilst either drunk or high or just too dog on tired to be behind the wheel of any time of machinery, I am not particularly surprised that he did not come back to find the truck's owner. This is irresponsible behaviour that has flowed over into the criminal realm.
Re the Fort Worth police, I think the problem is intensely systemic. Firstly, as in any other field of employment, one will find good, talented people and others that are not so good and talented. Professional acumen varies in all professions. Secondly, talent and ability aside, there are not enough patrol cars to go around. We need more patrol, but the city's budget is tight in every area including law enforcement. The criminals tremendously out number the officers. Thirdly, as for talent and ability, the job itself offers few incentives for talented young people to join the force. It is all a tangled mess beginning with the recruiting of talented people to the budget needed for them to be effective.
Even in those cases where the police are able to find a criminal, the DA's office may not care to prosecute for one reason or another. You think I have had bad luck with my vehicle being vandalised, etc.?? I can tell you another story involving the police that will make your mouth drop to your knees. Some months ago I purchased a bottle of bath oil on-line from a seller in another state. Immediately after I purchased it, I had second thoughts, so I immediately contacted the seller and requested cancellation at which point the seller offered me a discount. I declined the offer and never gave it a second thought afterward.
About a week later, I suddenly began to receive tons of phone calls and text messages from people who wanted the "free" refrigerator I had available. I asked one of the many, many callers where she saw an ad offering to give away a refrigerator. She told me she saw it on a particular website. My first thought was that someone had posted an ad and transposed his phone number so that he actually posted my number by mistake, but sadly, that was not the case. I found the ad and saw that it listed my name, address, phone number, and a map to my house!! I could not imagine who would play such a stupid prank. I flagged the ad and had some friends flag it to remove it from the site. I never gave it any further thought afterward.
The following week, another ad was posted. This ad featured a nearly nude photo of an attractive young woman. The poster, pretending to be myself, said her husband was out of town, and she was looking for a sexual partner whilst he was away. (I am cleaning up the wording for the readers here.) The poster instructed interested parties to email her through the site so that she could give them "her" phone number. Once again I was flooded with phone calls and text messages from all sorts of men, both young and old, from all over the entire metroplex. One of the men told me where to find the ad, but no matter how many of my friends flagged it, we could not bring it down. This was very frightening to say the least because I had no idea who, indeed how many, might show up at my door! This was endangering my safety not to mention frightening me to death, which I am sure was the poster's intention. Whoever was doing this had really upped the bet from the previous ad which offered to give away a nice refrigerator.
I immediately contacted the website, but they refused to do anything about it. Per their user policy, they refused to give me any information concerning who was posting these ads. I racked my brains trying to think of someone who would want to do this to me, but I could not think of anyone. I am on good terms with everyone I know, and I do not know anyone who would even think of doing such a thing as this. Then, I suddenly remembered the cancellation of the bath oil purchase. It seemed like a really wild idea that anyone would do these things to someone because of a cancelled purchase, but I belled the seller. The call rolled over to her voicemail. I left a message that I knew what she had done with the ads and that I was reporting her to the police. Then, I watched the ad. A few minutes after I left the message, the ad was deleted by the poster. I then reported it to the police. I told them I had no prior connection with this person, and that whilst it sounded insane, I believed it was she who had done these things to me.
The police subpoenaed the website's records, the seller's phone records, my phone records, etc. They confirmed that it was this woman who posted the ads pretending to be me. What she did both times is a felony, and they are ready to arrest her for it. There is no doubt in the world that this person is guilty; however, the DA's office wants her computers and phones confiscated before prosecuting her. Can you believe it?? The detective has all of the electronic evidence from her phone carrier and the website, but that is as far as he can go until they can get her local police department to confiscate her equipment and arrest her. I think they will be able to do it, but it is taking a very long time, and time is not our friend in a case like this one.
In conclusion, then, I have been the victim of automobile vandalism and a hit and run, but the police were unable to determine who perpetrated these crimes, so I cannot claim any compensation from either the perpetrators or the Texas Crime Victims Fund. I have also been the victim of identity theft by a lunatic bath oil seller whom the police have been able to identify as the criminal, but she may not be prosecuted if the equipment she used is not found. Is this utterly demoralising or what?
In this last case, the police detective did his job, albeit this was not a very complicated thing to figure out once the records were subpoenaed and therefore did not require great talent to figure it out. Nevertheless, the crime perpetrated against myself and the detective's work in identifying the criminal may all be for naught because of the DA's office. It is truly disgusting. There is no reason why they should not pursue this with or without the equipment.
Last edited by the_little_truth_writer; 11-15-2014 at 11:44 AM..
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