FIND THE CRIME

 

The City of Dallas has launched an interactive mapping feature on its website that lets residents track different types of crime in their neighborhoods. Want to know how many homes were burglarized near you? Go to http//maps.dallascityhall.com/index.asp?mo=CrimesOnMap, start by clicking on "Return to Main Layers List" and enter an address. Information is updated monthly.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stolen toilet paper, tools

 

 

 

VICTIM: Charles Esterhay

 

 

DATE: Between Monday, April 25, and Friday, April 27
PLACE: 10800 block of Sandpiper

 

 

 

 

 

 

Why would someone steal 90 rolls of toilet paper from a storage shed?

 

 

That’s exactly what 82-year-old Charles Esterhay and his wife want to know.

 

 

“We couldn’t believe it,” he says.  

 

 

Esterhay chuckles a little about the incident. You see, this was not the first time his storage shed has been broken into in the 15 years he and his wife have lived there (they’ve owned the home for more than 20 years, but have lived there continuously since 1992).

 

 

And this time, the criminals didn’t take nearly as much.

 

 

          About three or four years ago, someone stole about $600 in tools from Esterhay’s shed.

 

 

“I never did replace those tools,” he says. “I just don’t do as much work around the house as I used to.”

 

 

          Even so, after that incident he wanted to make sure his shed was locked tight.

 

 

          “So I put on a heavy duty lock — it was supposed to be bolt cutter-proof.”

 

 

          It wasn’t.

 

 

          The criminals somehow were able to cut the lock off.

 

 

          Esterhay first noticed something was wrong Friday, April 27, at about 1:40 p.m., when he and his wife were backing out of their carport. Usually, he says, they head out going east, not passing by the storage shed. Today, they went the other way.

 

 

          “I looked and saw that the lock was gone and I thought: ‘Oh my God, they’ve hit us again.’”

 

 

          He adds: “The reason I didn’t notice anything before was because the door was closed.”

 

 

          This time the criminals only got away with about $148 in stolen items, including the door lock, some hand tools, a plastic tools cabinet filled with nuts, bolts and screws, and the toilet paper.

 

 

          “There were rakes and shovels — they didn’t take any of that. I don’t know if they got scared away,” Esterhay says. “It was things that were really obvious that they took.”

 

 

          And even though losing toilet paper isn’t that big of a deal, there is someone that might be missing it.

 

 

          “We take [the toilet paper] to our son every year in Santa Fe ,” Esterhay says.

 

 

          The Dallas Police Department recently launched a co-operative effort with the Boy Scouts of America to remind citizens to keep their garages protected.

 

 

          According to Dallas Police Officer Keith Allen, though homeowners sometimes forget to take the same precautions with their garages as they do their homes, making sure your garage is secure is a very important crime prevention tool.

 

 

         

 

 

         

 

 

Crime Stats from the Dallas Police Department:

 

 

 

 

13: Number of residential burglaries in Esterhay’s neighborhood (beat 656) so far in 2005.

 

 

 

 

423: Number of residential burglaries in North Central Division during same period.