BROKEN BEER BOTTLES LITTERED THE BACK SEATS

Sometimes crime statistics don’t really mean much to us. Property damage crimes go in one ear and out the other. But if it happens to you, it’s personal. Many people are struggling through a rough economy and squeezing every dollar they can. So when someone senselessly vandalizes your property for a few hundred bucks, that unexpected expense can really hurt.

The Victim: Christina Salinas

The Crime: Criminal mischief

Date: Monday, May 28

Time: 4:30 a.m.

Location: 500 block of Marlborough

Christina and her family experienced this firsthand. Someone smashed the rear glass in both of their cars.

“It was a little after 4 o’clock in the morning,” he says. “We don’t know who or why they did it. They just threw beer bottles at them.”

The cost was a hefty $350 to repair. No

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word on if these beer-drinking vandals favored domestic or imported brew, but their havoc was a big pain and a bite in the budget.

Dallas Police Lt. Gil Garza of the Southwest Patrol Division says that, unfortunately, destruction of property is a crime that investigators see pretty regularly. In this case, the vandals also may have been attempting to burglarize the vehicle, but “the suspects may have been startled,” Garza says. Also, the vandalism may not have been random, he says.

“If someone had a beef with the owners of the vehicles, they could have targeted their vehicles,” he says, adding that “sometimes, random acts of criminal mischief do occur. As property owners, there are always proactive measures we can take to prevent these crimes from occurring.”

Garza says these include: extra lighting (stationary or motion-controlled), alarm systems, the use of exterior security cameras and parking in the garage if at all possible.

CRIME NUMBERS |

Time of day when a man in a motorized wheelchair was hit by a car while crossing the street in the 700 block of West Jefferson; the driver fled the scene, leaving the victim with some cuts and bruises to his head and arms

Block of Thomasson Drive where a woman was cornered by two loose pit bulls while gardening on her front porch June 9; luckily, she sustained only a minor bite to her right hand

Date when a man was shot in the back with a pellet gun by someone in a passing truck while working in his yard in the 400 block of North Willomet

SOURCE: Dallas Police Department

Hit the trail

Elmwood park’s new trail opened last month. It was paid for through 2006 bond money, and neighbors have worked to beautify the park and raise money for it.

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