We have to meet this homeowner: I am knocking on his door. You will want to tuck this strategy away for future reference should your home be burglarized: JUST RAM THE BASTARDS!
Here is what the Dallas police tell me went down in my Preston-Royal neighborhood Wednesday around noon when I heard police choppers swooping down in my back yard, and sirens everywhere.
Full disclosure: I first heard about this from Bruce Graf, my remodeler extraordinaire, who came over to chat about some painting. And I’m screeening my porch. And maybe redoing my kitchen (shhh).
A neighbor who lives on Northaven and Royal Crest came home for lunch and noticed a strange car in his driveway, a white Nissan. He gets out of the car and looks in the house to see two strange people, a man and a woman, standing inside his house.
Now, DPD were already on their way to the area because of a call on Westmere, where a burglar alarm was going off and a man had called to report someone was in the house. Hold that thought for now.
So the officer drives on Northaven towards Westmere and sees a tall, 63-ish year old man sitting on a woman in someone’s yard. His car, a black suburban, is up on the grass. The girl still has socks on her hands.
Back to the guy (yep, the 63 year old) who drove home for lunch.
When he sees the stranger danger in his home, he figures it’s a burglary in process since it has happened before. (Buying real estate on a busy street? Beware.) He tries to get into his yard via his fence but the gate doesn’t work — it’s an old fence in need or process of repair. He starts tearing at the fence to make a hole. Now he sees the burglars in his kitchen through the French doors. He grabs his phone to call police. The couple comes out, and the burglar (about age 33, Hispanic) sticks a gun at the homeowner and tells him to drop his phone.
Drop his phone?
The homeowner gets into his Suburban real fast, the female accomplice gets into the passenger seat. The burglar is still pointing the gun at the homeowner now in the car, burglar standing in front of the car.
Then get this: the homeowner puts his car in gear, and goes for the Nissan, smashes it. The burglar runs towards one of the fence pillars. The homeowner backs up his car, accelerates, and hits the burglar with his Suburban against the brick pillar. He hits the guy so hard he knocks the burglar out of his shoes! (He also crumbles the brick pillar.) The burglar, with his gun, and likely a deeply injured broken leg, starts running west. The girl gets out of the car and runs south. The homeowner goes after her and wrestles her to the ground, sitting on her until police come.
(This is likely what my contractor saw en route to my house.)
Which they do, of course, pretty quickly because they were on their way to the burglar alarm on Westmere. Which turned out to be a false alarm. The owner was out of town, and panicked (of course) because for some reason the alarm company couldn’t get hold of DPD, so the owner called and said someone was in the house. Don’t blame him at all. I would have done the very same thing. Scary to be out of town and the alarm is going off and no DPD.
So that is why we had police choppers in the alley and all over yesterday, because a perp was running around bleeding with a gun. And possibly a cellphone. He ran (or was driven by one of the many workers in the area) to the 7/11 at Forest and Preston where a buddy picked him up. Police say he is likely hurt pretty badly from the pools of blood they traced. The female, who is 19, also Hispanic, is already in jail. Police now know who the guy is. A warrant has been issued for his arrest.
And ICE has been notified.
So that’s what happened in my quiet little hood yesterday. Thank God no one was shot or injured. Thank God for our police. And thank God that burglar alarm went off and that homeowner called DPD. Now there are two fewer criminals off the street… and this is the greatest neighborhood in Dallas.
Don’t Mess with Preston-Royal.
