La Marque, garden spot of Galveston County

[seamusTX]

My room mate's cousin was robbed at gunpoint ... The call was made from a pay phone and he was told to deliver it to what ended up being a vacant apartment.

That delivery to an empty house or apartment scam is widespread.

Many delivery places now ask for the customer's phone number and verify it by calling back. I don't know why they all don't do that.

BTW, pay phones are not as anonymous as they used to be. Many of them are monitored by cameras.

- Jim

[Purplehood]

My youngest brother was over at my house last night and asked why I had my handgun on a nearby table.

I told him that 24/7 carry meant just that

Is that "carry", or 24/7 "leave out on the table"?

I figure if a BG breaks into my home while I am in it, he has even odds of being the first to get to my gun if it is laying out on the table. When I am at home, my gun is on my hip.

Still trying to figure what I should do with my wife and kids home alone all day while I'm at work. We have a pistol at the house but usually it is in my wife's car and she isn't the type who is likely to carry it back and forth between the house and the car. I guess I figure it is more likely to be needed when the family is in the car, rather than when they are at home. Maybe I am wrong about that. The real solution is to get a couple more pistols and get my wife her CHL.

Not "on a table that is not within my immediate reach".

[Fangs]

They got the two guys on camera, but it never lead to any arrests as far as I know. No vehicle or gun was in the video footage, and the victim told me it was so blurry you couldn't really make out their faces.

Just within the past week he's decided to get a CHL.

[seamusTX]

Wednesday night, around 7:40 p.m., the driver of a silver Honda shot the driver of another vehicle at the intersection of Texas Avenue (FM 1765) and Amburn Road in La Marque. This is a rather desolate intersection.

The injured man was able to drive to a convenience store where he was helped by a police officer.

The shooter was not identified or apprehended.

No other information is available.

http://www.galvnews.com/story.lasso?ewc ... 60f6e43cc5" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

- Jim

[seamusTX]

Sunday morning, a few minutes after midnight, a driver crashed into several cars and a house in the 7400 block of Bluejay Drive, near Vauthier Road, in Texas City. Upon examination, police found that the man had been shot while driving. He was alone in the vehicle.

The victim was air-lifted to a hospital and died there.

This incident occurred about 1/4 mile from the location of the shooting in La Marque described above. Police have no suspect in either case.

http://www.galvnews.com/story.lasso?ewc ... 367ee0091d" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Coincidence? You decide.

- Jim

[Oldgringo]

How far is La Marque from Friendswood and PSC?

[seamusTX]

At least 20 miles. Don't worry about it. The border between La Marque and Texas City is an economically troubled area ridden with drug- and gang-related crime. The northwest corner of the county, where PSC is, is a combination of rural and quiet dormitory suburbs.

- Jim

[seamusTX]

A Santa Fe man is under arrest after he allegedly kidnapped an 80-year-old La Marque man and forced him to withdraw money from a bank. Apparently someone at the bank figured out that something dodgy was going on and called the police.

After his arrest, the suspect complained of chest pain and was taken to the hospital in police custody.

http://www.galvnews.com/story.lasso?ewc ... d5caf941a2" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The two men knew each other before the robbery. One has to wonder what the robber was planning to do to cover his tracks.

- Jim

[seamusTX]

It's probably not fair to pin this one on La Marque, but the site, 2000 block of Rosalee, is the same garden spot as many of the other crimes reported in this thread.

Police recovered a vehicle in La Marque that had been carjacked in Houston Monday. The vehicle was equipped with LoJack. They arrested a 17-year-old Houston man and recovered a BB pistol that allegedly had been used in the hijacking.

http://galvestondailynews.com/story.las ... ea1e86296e" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

- Jim

[seamusTX]

Crimestoppers is offering a $5,000 reward for a home invasion robbery that occurred Tuesday in the 2300 block of Oaklawn in La Marque. This is the same area near Main Street east of I-45 where numerous home invasions and drive-by shootings have occurred.

The robbers are described as two

black [men], in their mid-20s, having medium complexions, slender builds, about 6 feet tall and weighing between 170 and 180 pounds,

The loot is described as

... cash, men’s and women’s rings with assorted stones, a gemstone collection and a blue Smith and Wesson .38-caliber police-model handgun ...

This quantity of gems suggests that the robbers knew in advance what they were looking for.

I'll bet the guy wishes that the revolver was in a holster on his belt instead of in his safe.

http://www.galvnews.com/story.lasso?ewc ... 81e21bccd6" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

In an unrelated incident, a 29-year-old Galveston woman was charged with armed robbery of a game room at 2413 Cedar St. in La Marque.

http://www.galvnews.com/story.lasso?ewc ... 7a68f#oman" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

- Jim

[rbraughn]

La Marque has never been the Crown Jewel of Galveston county, but I wonder if the rise in crime rate may be in part due to many people being displaced from Galveston due to Ike?

Remember, all of the low income housing tenants have been displaced.

[seamusTX]

I don't know.

- Jim

[stevie_d_64]

From the Galveston County Daily News, this date:

Pizza Delivery Driver Robbed

LA MARQUE — A pizza deliver woman was jumped and robbed Sunday night, La Marque police said.

The Domino’s Pizza driver was delivering pizza to a house in the 1100 block of Roosevelt about 9 p.m. Sunday when the robbery happened. The delivery woman told police she was handing food to a man sitting on the porch when he sucker punched her.

That’s when two men jumped from behind some bushes and joined the attack. The men forced the driver back into her car and drove her about two blocks away before they got out and took off on foot, police said.

The robbers made off with only $20 in cash and about $50 in pizza and chicken wings. The driver did not suffer major injuries.

Investigators are trying to determine what connection the robbers had to the house where the robbery happened. The order was placed from a house about a block away.

Police said Domino’s is offering a reward, as is La Marque Crime Stoppers.

Anyone with information should call 409-938-8477.

— T.J. Aulds

Domino's, of course, prohibits its employees from carrying weapons or defending themselves in any way.

- Jim

This is amazing Jim...You'd think this would be a slam dunk investigation here...The victim can easily recall the address where she was sucker punched, therefore finding the sucker puncher might be pretty easy...Driving her off a couple of blocks seemed to me to easy to determine how stupid those other two were as well...

Good thing I am not desparate enough to take on a delivery job like that...Regardless of company policy, my life is worth more than a job, yet if they want the bad publicity of firing me because I defended myself while on the clock when they send me out on these "please rob me" runs...Well, that might be a case of tough noogies on their part...

But I guess they'll never know...

[seamusTX]

This is amazing Jim...You'd think this would be a slam dunk investigation here...The victim can easily recall the address where she was sucker punched, therefore finding the sucker puncher might be pretty easy...

Seven months on, no one has been charged.

These robbers frequently order deliveries to vacant houses or apartments. That's probably what happened here. Either the house was Iked or the robbers knew that the resident was away for a while.

There are quite a few vacant foreclosed houses now.

- Jim

[seamusTX]

It's not fair to pin this one on La Marque. It happened there, but the participants were just passing through.

Three people traveling in a car northbound on I-45 (speed limit 65 MPH) Sunday evening reportedly got into an argument. The rear-seat passenger allegedly shot the driver twice in the head, killing him. He also shot the front-seat passenger. The vehicle crashed into a pole. The alleged shooter is now hospitalized with a broken arm and charged with aggravated assault. The woman who was shot is in the hospital in critical condition.

http://www.galvnews.com/story.lasso?ewc ... 27464ee17e" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Poor impulse control.

- Jim