THIRD ROW THIEVES

Car burglars in our neighborhood hit three SUVs in less than 24 hours last month, making off with the vehicles’ third-row seats.

Theft of SUV seats has been a national crime trend since at least 2012. Burglars can break into the rear door on an SUV and steal the third row in less than 10 seconds.

At least three such crimes were reported last month in an otherwise very lowcrime neighborhood near Preston and Royal.

The first two happened around 1 a.m. Sept. 8 in the 5800 block of Royal Crest. Two days later, a car burglar struck again in the middle of the night, in the 5800 block of Northmoor, which is within the same subdivision.

Thieves list the third-row seats for sale on Craigslist, where they can fetch $200-$400.

People

214.671.3624

—Rachel Stone

To prevent this type of theft, police recommend buying a lock for third-row seats or parking your vehicle up against a wall or garage door so that the rear door can’t be pried open.

Legendary Realtor and activist Ebby Halliday Acers died Sept. 8 at 104 years old. In lieu of flowers, donations were sought for her favorite causes, like YWCA of Metropolitan Dallas and Happy Hill Farm and Academy.

Recent Ursuline Academy graduate Mara Papakostas received one of 620 National Security Language Initiative for Youth scholarships from the U.S. Department of State. Papakostas, who is 18 and speaks six languages, has embarked on an eight-month immersive Arabic course in Morocco.

Education

Sruthi Tummala, a senior at Ursuline Academy, won the Girl Scout Gold Award for her work encouraging fourth-grade students in science, technology, engineering and math. The Girl Scouts of North Texas named her a Young Woman of Distinction, and she will be honored in a luncheon this month.

The Dallas Historical Society awarded its 2015 Award for Excellence to Dr. Robert W. Haley of UT Southwestern Medical School. Haley founded the school’s Division of Epidemiology and Preventative Medicine in 1983 and has since received countless accolades for his research into hospital-acquired infections. More recently, The Dallas Morning News reports, “Haley and a team of researchers have amassed a body of medical evidence showing that exposure to chemicals” is likely responsible for the mysterious Gulf War illness affecting thousands of veterans.

Two Jesuit students, Thomas Jordan and Charles “Clay” Phillips, earned perfect ACT scores this summer. Last year, only 1,407 of nearly 1.85 million students achieved this feat. That’s a mere 0.07 percent.

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