True crime: Burglary of a motor vehicle

The Victim: Miguel Orellana
The Crime: Burglary of a motor vehicle
Date: Thursday, March 21
Time: 11:10 a.m.
Location: 5800 block of Trailmeadow

The truck swerved around him.

Miguel Orellana was working hard on a Preston Hollow home. He is a contractor and had been finishing up some work in the attic, already well into the job by mid-morning. As he exited the house, something was a bit strange in the alley where his truck was parked. A man was standing next to it. As Orellana made his way to his truck, the man jumped in a Toyota pickup and began to drive off down the alley.

Noticing that some items had been stolen from his vehicle, Orellana tried to cut the off suspect by standing at the only exit from the addition. As the truck approached, however, it veered around him and kept going.

Unfortunately, Orellana had left a window down and the keys under the floormat. The burglar made off with some business supplies and paperwork, computer laptop, a backpack and his keys.

“I got a license plate number, but it was a stolen truck,” Orellana says. “It was very frustrating.”

That certainly did not help track down the suspects and left this victim even more frustrated.

Dallas Police Major Bill Humphrey of the North Central Patrol Division says it is important that residents always take security measures to protect their property even when their vehicle may be close. Leaving things in a car unattended (and with a window rolled down) makes the vehicle a target for a crook.

Humphrey says that Dallas Police stress a lock-take-hide approach: Always lock your vehicle, always take any valuables from the vehicle, and always hide any valuables that you can’t remove from the car.

| Crime numbers |

$15,000

Value of copper wiring stolen April 3 from a house under construction on the 6000 block of Azalea; the burglar removed several three-foot sections of copper tubing and about 23 feet of wiring

2:18

Time of the morning March 14 when an off-duty officer fired his gun after a fight between two groups of people in the parking lot at 2200 W. Northwest Highway escalated to them firing weapons; one person died and the other was transported to Parkland Hospital