True Crime: Theft

Someone wrestled away the basketball goal.

The Victim: Max Dunham
Date: Saturday, Dec. 15
Time: Between 9 p.m. and 8 a.m.
Location: 10000 block of Edgecove

It seemed like something that would be difficult to steal, and Lake Highlands Estates resident Max Dunham thought his kids’ basketball goal — hoop, backboard, pole and all — was probably pretty safe from being stolen.

He was wrong.

“It must have taken two or three guys,” he says of its theft that night in December. “It was heavy as all get out.”

The basketball goal was the portable kind, with wheels on the bottom and a base filled with lots of water so that it couldn’t be moved easily. Dunham says it was stable even in very heavy winds.

He and his kids shot some hoops the night before the theft. The next morning, Dunham, who works as an Ebby Halliday Realtor, left the house to put out some open house signs. When he returned home, he noticed that the goal was gone.

The kids were a bit disappointed that their HORSE and pick-up basketball games would come to a stop. But Dunham says he plans on getting a new one soon.

“We’re going to buy another one, but we’re going to put this one in the ground permanently,” he says.

Dallas Police Sgt. Keitric Jones of the Northeast Patrol Division says criminals steal property that is easily accessible, and it’s important to secure all outdoor items to make it harder for a criminal to take.

“Secure items with a chain so that they cannot be easily carried away,” he says. “If it cannot be secured with a chain, place the item inside of a locked fence.”