Crime: Burglary
Victim: Steve Salas
Date: Wednesday, Oct. 3
Time: 1:30 p.m.
Place: 9500 block of Robin Meadow

As far as a welcoming goes, it was a rude one.

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Steve Salas, a denizen of Rodgers, Ark., had come to visit his longtime friend Bennett Cowper in Lake Highlands, primarily to help Cowper prep for an overseas trip. On his first morning in town, Salas placed his laptop on the kitchen counter to answer a few e-mails before stepping out with Cowper for an hour or two of afternoon errand-running. When he returned to the house, the laptop had vanished.

“I came back to the house and saw my wallet sitting on the table, where my laptop had been, and I didn’t really understand what was going on at first,” Salas says. “It was strange, because I thought I had my wallet on me. So both my wallet and laptop weren’t really where I expected them to be.”

The responding officer surmised that the burglar was walking on the porch outside, saw the laptop through the open window and helped himself, using the porch’s unlocked sliding glass door to get inside. The burglar had such a one-track mind, he didn’t even bother taking the wallet lying right next to the laptop.

Lt. Michael Woodberry agrees with this assessment, saying that if the blinds of the window had been drawn, it’s possible the burglary may not have occurred.

“People try to make these burglars out to be intellectuals and planners, and they’re not,” Woodberry says. “They see something they want, and they take it and they get out quick. If window blinds are drawn, and they can’t see anything inside, very often they won’t bother taking the time to go in and look around.”

Salas says the laptop held many personal files, but he’s confident the burglar won’t be able to access them. The laptop had fingerprint recognition security on it, he says, which would deter anyone without his right thumb from accessing the computer.

According to Woodberry, such security is good for keeping people off of your computer, but may not be the best thing if one hopes to see their computer recovered by the police department’s pawn shop detail.

“I would think that sort of security would devalue the computer, for sure,” Woodberry says. “When burglars take it, they don’t know about the security. But when they try to pawn it, which is where most of this stuff ends up, they probably won’t get much. If a pawnshop won’t buy it, they’ll probably just throw it out or scrap it for parts.”

Salas grew up in the Dallas area and is planning a move back in the near future. This theft, he says, won’t deter him.

“I love this town,” Salas says. “It’s a shame when things like this can happen in such nice neighborhoods, but I still think things around here are pretty OK.”