Thieves are apparently cruising the alleys of the Park Cities, ready to strike at a moment’s notice whenever an opportunity arises.
At 1 p.m. on Sept. 26, a babysitter returned to her employer’s house in the 3300 block of Dartmouth Avenue after taking her employer’s child for a walk. The child needed to go to the bathroom, but the babysitter could not get the gate across the rear driveway to open. So the babysitter left a $560 BOB double jogging stroller outside the gate and carried the child into the house. When the babysitter returned to the alley 15 minutes later to retrieve the stroller, it was gone.
At 4:30 p.m. on Sept. 28, a man opened the door to his detached garage in the 4400 block of Westway Avenue and then walked to his front yard to retrieve his son’s scooter. As he walked back to the garage, the man saw a stranger pedaling away on his son’s newly purchased 24-inch Schwinn Atlas bicycle. The man ran to his car to see if he could chase down the thief on the $173 bike, but he lost sight of him.
Click through for a roundup of other residential crimes reported in the Park Cities last week:
- At 3:44 a.m. on Sept. 22, a burglar entered a silver 2004 Mercedes SL55 in the 3200 block of Westminster Avenue. Nothing was reported stolen.
- Between 8:30 p.m. on Sept. 21 and 8 a.m. on Sept. 22, a thief stole $395 worth of miscellaneous property from a white 2012 GMC Yukon that had been left unlocked in the 3100 block of Westminster Avenue. Most of the stolen items were recovered.
- Between 9:30 p.m. on Sept. 21 and 8:20 a.m. on Sept. 22, a thief stole $2,330 worth of golf equipment and $130 worth of miscellaneous property from a black 2006 Acura that had been left unlocked in the 2900 block of McFarlin Boulevard. Most of the stolen items were recovered.
- At 9:05 p.m. on Sept. 25, a University Park resident struck two trees in the 4200 block of Lakeside Drive with her white 2012 Cadillac Escalade before causing $2,000 worth of damage to a residential brick wall. The driver admitted that the accident happened because she was texting while driving.
- At 10 a.m. on Sept. 26, a resident of the 4500 block of Belfort Place discovered that a piece of jewelry was not in her master bedroom closet, where she normally leaves it. A search for the missing item led her to realize that several pieces of jewelry — with a combined value of $79,350 — were missing, as was $100 worth of cash. The last time she remembers seeing all of the jewelry was at about 1 p.m. on Sept. 22. The only people with access to the house during that timeframe were the victim’s family, friends, and her housekeeper of five years.
- At 2:30 p.m. on Sept. 26, a thief stole various tools from a black 2006 Chevy S10 that had been left unlocked in a rear driveway in the 3200 block of St. Johns Drive. Police know exactly when the crime happened because the victim heard the thief pull up and open his truck while he was cleaning the pool in the backyard next to the driveway.
- Between midnight and 4 p.m. on Sept. 27, a thief stole at least one license plate from a blue BMW 528i in the 3100 block of Southwestern Boulevard.
- Between 5 and 6:20 p.m. on Sept. 27, a burglar broke into a black 2011 Cadillac SRX in the 3400 block of Villanova Drive and stole a $1,300 Louis Vuitton purse, a $450 Michael Kors wallet, a $300 Tory Burch wallet, a $300 BlackBerry phone, a $250 Marc Jacobs purse, $200 in cash, $100 worth of children’s toys, seven credit cards, and two driver’s licenses.
- Between 1 and 6:45 p.m. on Sept. 27, a burglar broke into a white 2002 Lexus 300 in the 4000 block of Normandy Avenue and stole a $50 purse, a credit card, and a driver’s license.
- Between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. on Sept. 28, a burglar broke into a gray 2010 Land Rover LR4 in the 4200 block of Emerson Avenue and stole a $3,800 Louis Vuitton purse, a $400 Louis Vuitton wallet, and $400 in cash.
