The Victim: Pankaj Suboldh
The Crime: Criminal mischief/vandalism
Date: Saturday, Jan. 15
Time: Between 9 p.m. and 9 a.m.
Location: 5600 block of Ursula

The explosions pierced the night.

The couple was sleeping soundly. Pankaj Suboldh and his wife have lived in their Preston Hollow home for more than a decade without experiencing crime.

The sound of explosions in the middle of the night heralded that this was about to change.

“We a heard a couple of loud bangs,” Suboldh says. “I didn’t know if it was thunder or gunfire.”

Not thinking it was anything too pressing, the couple went back to sleep.

“We didn’t know what it was until the next day when my wife went out to get the newspaper,” he says.

What she found was a charred mailbox that had exploded. The back of the mailbox had been blown about 20 feet away due to the ignition of a powerful form of firework, according to police.

“It blew out the back and the front,” Suboldh says. “It burned up some mail.”

Several years ago, Suboldh says, some teenagers had been knocking down mailboxes and vandalizing mailboxes in the area. As of press time, no one had been arrested for the crime, but Suboldh found the event quite unsettling.

“It made us feel very insecure,” he says. “My wife was very upset.”

The homeowner says he is still in the process of getting a new mailbox.

Dallas Police Lt. Barry Payne of the North Central Patrol Division says mailbox vandalism is not uncommon, including blowing them up with fireworks. However, Dallas police have not seen these types of crime in the Preston Hollow area recently, he says.

“The neighborhood where this occurred has experienced some teenage pranks,” Payne says. “Most do not include fireworks, but rather ringing doorbells, yelling disturbances and such.”

Payne believes the family was randomly targeted, but police also consider whether a threat beyond the vandalism exists.

“There is no indication of a particular threat to the family in this case,” Payne says. “Most mailbox explosions where some family member is targeted include some use of a triggering device so it will explode when someone opens the box. This apparently occurred during the middle of the night when no one should be around.”

02.08.11

Date a suspect robbed a woman at gunpoint in the NorthPark Center parking lot near Nordstrom

77

Age of the victim

$87,000

Estimated value of the items the robber stole, including a $22,000 fur coat and $65,000 diamond ring

SOURCE: Dallas Police Department