Not what you want to find on Christmas night

[seamusTX]

[Texas City homeowners] reported hearing the car pull into their driveway a few minutes after 10 p.m. Thursday.

After calling police about the abandoned car, dispatchers suggested they call a towing company to have it removed since the vehicle was on private property.

As they waited for the wrecker to arrive, the couple searched through the 1997 Mitsubishi Galant for records to identify the car’s owner.

They opened the trunk to discover the man’s body inside.

http://www.galvnews.com/story.lasso?ewc ... 1c3e60b34a" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

- JIm

[seamusTX]

The corpse in the trunk was that of an illegal immigrant from Honduras. He had a minor criminal record. Police found no connection to the owners of the home where the car was abandoned.

http://www.galvnews.com/story.lasso?ewc ... b39692a597" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

You have to sit back and think for a minute about how having a body dumped on your property puts you in the spotlight.

- Jim

[Keith B]

You have to sit back and think for a minute about how having a body dumped on your property puts you in the spotlight.

- Jim

Yeah, if you find a dead body in the back, drive the car over to the neighbor you don't like and leave it in THEIR driveway!!

Seriously, I have a real issue with the police stance on abandoned cars on private property being the responsibility of the property owner to move. We had an issue with a car being abandoned on our company parking lot. Did not belong to anyone that worked there, and the police said it was our responsibility to pay the towing company to get it removed. The city ordinances state that they will remove them, but the police won't touch them. The car set there for 6 months before we could get anyone to haul it off for the scrap. I asked on of the officers what he would do if I dumped a junk car in the Chief's driveway. He didn't respond.

[seamusTX]

This is by no means the first such incident I have seen, where a car was abandoned, no one wanted to take responsibility for it, and eventually a corpse was found in it.

Many of these vehicles might not contain a body, but they might contain a subtle clue to another crime. Echoes in the Darkness, anyone?

- Jim

[bayouhazard]

What would happen if a homeowner pushed a trespassing vehicle off their property and into the street?

[Keith B]

What would happen if a homeowner pushed a trespassing vehicle off their property and into the street?

If it had been known to been left in the driveway, then they would be responsible for abandoning it on the street and fined; at least that is what was told to us on the parking lot abandonment when we threatened to drag it out there.

[bayouhazard]

If you know the local police won't come pick it up, it sounds like the best thing to do is not waste a phone call. Just move it to the curb with the rest of the garbage.

[seamusTX]

I don't see how someone other than the registered owner or lessor of a vehicle could be charged with abandoning it.

In Keith's case, you were talking to someone who was most likely not a lawyer.

I would be concerned about touching a vehicle that could be evidence in a crime. I've been told that it is difficult to get fingerprints from a car, but I am not taking my chances.

We had a minor mystery on July 4, 2007. Someone parked an old van across our driveway. When I saw it in the morning, I looked in the windows. I could not see anyone inside.

We could just barely get around it with our cars.

The next day I called the cops. They looked up the owner and called her on their phone. They got no answer. After two more days the city towed away the van. It was entirely on the public street.

I halfway expected to hear about a missing person or crime associated with that van, but I never learned what happened.

- Jim

[seamusTX]

After two weeks, the police have no leads and little information about this homicide.

The victim was an illegal alien who apparently worked odd jobs for cash. He had no paper trail. He did not seem to be involved in criminal activity. But he obviously got very crosswise with someone who stabbed and beat him to death.

http://www.galvnews.com/story.lasso?ewc ... e01d70a24a" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

- Jim