Many people dream of owning a convertible.
Especially with spring approaching, nothing seems more relaxing than a warm sunny day, the top rolled down, and the wind in your hair as you cruise through the city.
Unfortunately for some Preston Hollow residents, vandals have taken advantage of convertible owners and cut through the ragtops of several of these cars parked right in front of their owners’ residences. The damages have been in the thousands of dollars — as well as a real headache getting auto repairs.
Alma Fuentes recently was one of these victims. Her 2007 Toyota Solara was parked in front of her home when someone sliced through her convertible top sometime during the night or early morning hours.
“It was just kind of a random act of vandalism,” Fuentes says. “It was a Saturday morning, and I just got out to my car and my car top was slashed.”
Fuentes says only an Apple iPod car charging cable and security gate cards for her home and work were taken.
“It’s not like I keep anything in there worth stealing,” she says. “It’s frustrating because they didn’t even get anything of value. It makes you wonder if they were trying to steal the car or trying to take the stereo or something?”
According to Dallas Police reports, Fuentes was one of seven victims in just six days from Feb. 7-14. All of the victims generally had their tops slashed between the evening hours of 7-9 p.m. and the morning hours of 8-10 a.m.
“These offenses are strange in that they seem to start at random, last for a little while and then stop, and it may go for a long time before we have another,” says Lt. Barry Payne of the Dallas Police North Central Division. “We don’t have any intelligence on who may be involved in doing these this time. They seem to be done out of pure meanness. There appears to be no motivation to break into the cars or take anything.”
