The pipes were gone.
The Victim: Earl Lacy
The Crime: Burglary of a motor vehicle
Date: Sunday, June 13
Time: Between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m.
Location: 7200 block of Claybrook
Earl Lacy has smoked pipes for 53 years. He worked in the cigar, pipe and tobacco business, and finds a nice pipe filled with fine tobacco a great way to unwind.
“It’s relaxing to me,” he says.
Unfortunately, Lacy left six of his fine pipes in his car June 13, the same night a thief broke into several cars in his neighborhood. The pipes, valued at $800, were gone, along with 40 CDs and a broken car window that will need to be repaired. His car had been parked in front of his Merriman Park North home.
“They hit about five or six cars in the neighborhood on the same night,” Lacy says. “They hit two of us on Claybrook. They hit my neighbor’s daughter’s car across the street. My neighbors heard them and went outside, and then noticed that my truck had been broken into, too. Unfortunately, I left some stuff in there that they got away with.”
Glass was everywhere, and Lacy was quite frustrated to be a victim and have some of his excellent pipes stolen.
“They found some blood inside of my truck and took a DNA sample,” he says. “I hope the [thief] bled to death.”
Dallas Police Officer A.J. Serratos with the Northeast Patrol Division says criminals may often work together, but hit several cars separately looking for anything of value.
“Sometimes crooks don’t work alone, and they wait for certain hour of the early morning to break into cars, especially if they are left on the street,” Serratos says. “In Texas, a vehicle is burglarized every two and half minutes.”
Serratos also recommends parking cars in a garage if at all possible, and if it has to be parked in a driveway or on the street, emptying the car of anything that a crook might be interested in.
“Its very important to not leave anything inside a car no matter what time of day,” Serratos says. Always remember to ‘take, lock and hide’ all your belongings.”
07.09: Date when someone entered the Target on East Northwest Highway and made a fraudulent purchase by replacing trhe price tag of a furniture item
$54: The difference in cost after the shopper switched price tags, paying only $31.78 for two bar stools valued at more than $100
6: The checkout lane where the fraud was apprehended by an undercover shopper who witnessed the entire incident
