La Marque, garden spot of Galveston County

[srothstein]

Jim, shooting the guy driving the car you are riding in, especially at highway speeds, seems like a slam dunk in the stupid criminal of the month category.

[seamusTX]

I had to pick a thread, and we already had a dumb criminal of the month.

- Jim

[Rex B]

I think many, if not most, pizza guys now carry some sort of weapon, company policy or no.
The managers know this and don't mention it.
Everyone knows if the driver uses a weapon to defend himself, the company has to disavow his actions and fire them.
That's the rules. Driver protects himself, company protects itself

[ELB]

I had to pick a thread, and we already had a dumb criminal of the month.

- Jim

"Month" is probably too long a period for this type of award -- way too many candidates. Which is fortunate I guess, cuz that's how most of them seem to be caught.

[seamusTX]

"Month" is probably too long a period for this type of award -- way too many candidates. Which is fortunate I guess, cuz that's how most of them seem to be caught.

All thieves and robbers are dumb. I try to pick the ones that are uniquely, spectacularly stupid, like the guy above who shot the driver of the car he was in, going 65 MPH.

Do the math: Let's say it takes $50,000 a year to have a comfortable standard of living and put something away for retirement (criminals don't get Social Security). That's about $200 per work day, five days a week.

A robber gets maybe $50 per convenience store robbery, plus a few cartons of cigarettes that he has to sell at a discount. Wallets and purses, anywhere from a few bucks to a few hundred, plus whatever they can charge before the cards are cut off. There isn't much in the average home that you can steal and pawn for more than $50 or $100, unless you happen on a stash of gold or jewelry.

The closure rate on property crimes and robbery is around 30%. That means a thief has a 30% chance of being caught for each crime. It just doesn't pay.

The big money is in fraud and embezzlement.

- Jim

[seamusTX]

Newly installed La Marque police chief Randall Aragon is implementing a community policing effort with comprehensive training for officers. The first focus of the effort will be the nasty area where many of the crimes that I have posted in this thread occurred.

http://www.galvnews.com/story.lasso?ewc ... cc0001f71b" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I wish them luck.

- Jim

[seamusTX]

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.

This incident occurred in November 2009. This week the alleged shooter was indicted for murder. He remains in jail on $500,000 bond and is also being held for a parole violation.

http://www.galvnews.com/story/158020" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

No report on the woman's condition, but she apparently survived.

- Jim

[seamusTX]

A man driving in the 1800 block of Bayou Road around 11 p. m. Monday was struck from behind. When he got out of his car, he was robbed at gunpoint by the occupants of the other vehicle, who absconded and have not been apprehended.

http://galvestondailynews.com/story.las ... 7f9344be59" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

- Jim

[seamusTX]

A woman jogging in the 200 block of Linton Drive at 8 a.m. was attacked by a man described as "white or Hispanic. He wore dirty bluejeans, a light color T-shirt and black shoes. He was about 6 feet tall and had a slender build. He also had dark hair and facial hair."

She reportedly was not seriously injured. The attacker fled and has not been apprehended.

http://www.galvnews.com/story/160562" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

A suspected robber was arrested in the 500 block of Vauthier Road after an hours-long manhunt and SWAT team mobilization.

http://www.galvnews.com/story/160410" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

These two incidents apparently are unrelated and occurred about one-half mile apart.

- Jim

[seamusTX]

"Moll," age 22, arrested and charged in the case of the fleeing robbery "suspect" from yesterday. She is "suspected" of being in the vehicle with the other "suspect" when he "allegedly" committed several armed robberies.

http://www.galvnews.com/story/160710" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Bonnie and Clyde wannabees. They never seem to take into account how Bonnie and Clyde ended up.

- Jim

[Oldgringo]

There you are. For a while there, I was afraid no skulduggery had gone on in Galveston County this weekend.

[mkosmo]

The AK is one of the most known weapons platforms the world over, the media splash it up as often as they can...I can almost bet that if you just saw a quick flash of any part of the firearm you could identify it...

I can see the media identifying the muzzle of my 1911 as an AK-47, too.

[ELB]

...Home invasion lets robbers get all kinds of stuff, force the occupants to open a safe, force them to go with the robbers to an ATM, and maybe engage in some recreational violence.

I'm surprised it is not more common than it is. Perhaps the high level of firearms ownership in Texas keeps it down. Few people carry, but many keep loaded weapons at home.

- Jim

Reread this whole thread before I realized that it started some time ago (and that I had already commented).

But this comment jumped out at me. I remember reading awhile back (as in the past year or two) that burgling homes while people were at home (I guess that makes it robbery) had become the preferred method of burglary in the UK -- over half of burglaries were of occupied dwellings -- because the burglars/robbers figured out that this was easier -- they didn't have to search the home, they only needed to threaten or beat the occupants to find the location of all the good stuff.

The police chief of one UK city force was quoted as telling people they should leave their car keys on a table near the front door -- that way, when the thieves kicked in the front door, the keys would be easy for them to find and they would not have to trot up the stairs to the bedroom to beat the keys out of the occupants.

I prefer living in Texas.

[seamusTX]

According to reports, a motorcycle rider was struck by a vehicle and injured in La Marque Sunday. Police found the drunk driver of a pickup truck several blocks away with the motorcycle still embedded under the truck.

http://www.galvnews.com/story/169538" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

- Jim

[Yankee Girl]

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

HOWEVER ... if you search the DPS database for registered sex offenders, there are a relatively high concentration of them in Alvin and in the unincorporated areas around Alvin, Manvel, the southern edges of Pearland and the western edge of Friendswood. Most of them apparently were not physically violent, other than to their little-girl victims (and don't get me started on that), but how do I know what other kinds of scum they live with? I live about a mile from PSC in one of those "quiet dormitory suburbs" off 528, and in the last year, we've had burglaries in our "can't happen here" neighborhood - my doors stay locked unless some of my family is inside and some is outside.