Burglary

Stolen Food Truck's Wild Ride: A Fence-Smashing, Median-Jumping, Cop-Hitting Episode On The Southwest Side

After one of their food trucks was burglarized a second time, the owners of Healthy Lunch Box Catering decided to take action. They may have got more than they bargained for. After setting up surveillance of their parking lot Saturday night, they were witnesses to a wild episode that only ended wh ... More >>

Annise Parker Finds The Silver Lining In An Attempted Burglary Of Her Car

Follow-up question: Do you know what's the not-so-best thing about Houston and its people? Getting your car broken into at 2 a.m. Mayor Annise Parker used Twitter to put a smiley face on the attempted burglary of her daughter's car in Montrose early Friday. (The tweet just went up today, so apparen ... More >>

Sledgehammering Your Way into a Church: Ocean's 14, Your Script Is Ready

It's like a potential script for Ocean's 14, except that instead of glitzy casinos you have a ramshackle church, and in place of an incredibly complicated and time-sensitive scheme that relies heavily on the latest in high-tech computer technology, you have one very confused guy with a sledgehammer. ... More >>

Is Houston the Worst City in America for Burglaries? Probably

There you were feeling pretty damn good about yourself when you read the Brookings Institution found that Houston had the best economy in the country. You puffed your chest out, retweeted and shared posts on Facebook to all your yankee cousins. "Looky here," you said with a sense of pride, "Now, wha ... More >>

You Better Watch Out...Someone Might Steal Your Car This Christmas

So, let's see, what's on my wish list for this year? There's this killer Rush baseball jersey, a $1000 Visa gift card, chicken nuggets for life and, oh right, NOT getting my car stolen or broken into. Given how many cars get ripped off during the holidays, that last one on the list might be the toug ... More >>

Bernard Cardenas Charged as a Serial Home Burglar; Took His 3-year-old Along on His Last Job

A suspected serial burglar has been arrested and charged after police say they found him trying to break into a house, while his 3-year-old son sat waiting for his dad in his car out front. Police say they believe Bernard Cardenas, 34, is responsible for more than a dozen burglaries in the east ... More >>

Comment of the Day: Support For Food Trucks Like Oh My Gogi

We have some great commenters here on Hair Balls, and it's time we paid some damn attention to them. So we'll be highlighting a Comment of the Day each morning or afternoon from the previous day's work. Maybe two comments, even. This will all be determined by a highly rigorous scientific formula i ... More >>

Patrick Spurlock: Goes On Shooting Rampage, Injuring 4, Then Dies In Car Accident

A chronically disgruntled renter went on a shooting rampage Wednesday morning and injured four people before dying in a traffic accident, police say. HPD has identified the shooter as Patrick O'Neal Spurlock, 39. The ysaid they received a call of a shooting in progress at an apartment in the 6000 b ... More >>

Adrian Avalos: Feline Yowls Foil Alleged Attempt at Deed Most Foul

An alleged Carancahua Drive cat burglar was foiled by the meowing cries of a coterie of Corpus Christi kitty cats, police there said. According to a CCPD press release, a woman was washing dishes around midnight Friday when she heard her cats "going crazy" behind her house. When she looked out her ... More >>

Comment of the Day: On the Chad Holley Arrest

We have some great commenters here on Hair Balls, and it's time we paid some damn attention to them. So we'll be highlighting a Comment of the Day each morning or afternoon from the previous day's work. Maybe two comments, even. This will all be determined by a highly rigorous scientific formula i ... More >>

Ummm, THIS Guy Comes to Your Door and You Believe He Works for the Electric Company?

Yeah, yeah, I work for CenterPoint.​No one ever thinks they will fall for a con man's spiel, something which has kept con men flush since time began. But we have to think if the dude shown in an HPD Composite sketch showed up at our door and said he worked for CenterPoint, we'd have some doub ... More >>

Charlie The Dog Is Saved!

Cheer up, Charlie​We told you earlier about Wes Covington, a resident of northwest Harris County who was burglarized. Thieves made off with custom-made guitars -- one signed by Buddy Guy -- but, more importantly, Covington's dog Charlie went missing. Either the thieves took the Boxer, or the ... More >>

Splendora Cops Seeking Two Butt-Dumb Burglars

Splendora Police DepartmentBurglary Suspect #1. Note pensive expression and rad neck-chain tat. ​ Have you seen these two men? Splendora cops would like to know. That's because they say these two geniuses swiped the digital camera on which these photos were taken (along with a laptop, TV and ... More >>

What The "Top 10 Stolen Vehicles" List Says About Houston

Stolen, by manly men​Every month Houston police put out a list of the most-often stolen vehicles, a list that defines what are either the most vulnerable or most desirable members of our automotive society. This month's is out....what does it tell us about Houston? 3. Our car thieves want yo ... More >>

Heights Burglary Ring Busted

Don't brag on Facebook, kids

Heights Burglary Ring Smashed; Four Area Youths in Custody & Their Facebook Bragging Exposed

Phots by HPDNathaniel Cook: One of four arrested.​An alert area resident and diligent Central Patrol officers have taken in a quartet of Heights miscreants they say broke into four area homes on Tuesday. Police say Nathaniel Dean Cook, Octavius Demone Harris, Eli Marquis Ortiz and Everardo Se ... More >>

That Stolen Renoir Is Probably Sitting In A Garage Somewhere

A problem, not a painting​A Renoir painting was stolen from what we assume is a ritzy westside home earlier this month. So it's probably now hanging on the wall of a unfathomably rich mysterious Russian or Japanese financier, right? Nope. It's probably sitting in the burglar's garage, accord ... More >>

Free Break-In And Giant Dump With Your Heights Car Repair

Photo by Mandy OaklanderBobby Harting is sick of being burglarized and ignored.​Last week, Chris Lawless dropped his car off at Tech Auto Maintenance in the Heights for a repair. He stopped by the next day to find it fixed but picked clean of loose change, hundreds of CDs, and his limited-edit ... More >>

HPD Crows Over Another Crime-Rate Drop

"Safest big city in America," chief says​The Houston Police Department is once again boasting of a noticeable drop in crimes, as reported to a national database. Comparing the first half of 2011 to the first half of 2010, murder is down 37.1 percent, robberies 20.8 percent and overall violent ... More >>

HPD: Crime Rate Down; Number of Cops Soon Will Be Too

Goin' down​On a day when KHOU reported as many as 181 cops may be laid off due to budget constraints, HPD announced that crime rates have dropped again in Houston. Total crime in the first quarter of 2011 dropped 14.2 percent from the first quarter of 2010, HPD said. Violent crime is down by ... More >>

16 City Employees Nabbed for Stealing City's Copper

HPDArthur Samuel, city employee and alleged copper thief​Sixteen city employees have been charged with stealing copper, because hey, it was there for the taking, we guess. Seven have been arrested so far, HPD says. Investigators got a tip that the workers were selling copper to Latino's Scra ... More >>

Auto Theft: 10 Best Houston Neighborhoods To Get Your Ride Stolen

​Houston can be a tough place to live without a car. So getting it stolen is a real bummer. And here are the 10 places where it's most likely to happen. We're not saying you need to avoid them, just be careful. The stats are from December, and as always, HPD cautions against comparing raw be ... More >>

That Long-Awaited HPD Beating Video Is Out

The video is out​KTRK has managed to get its hands on the long-awaited security footage that shows Houston police officers hitting and kicking a teenaged burglary suspect as he's in custody. From the initial reports by people who'd seen it when the incident happened last year, you might have ... More >>

Ten Houston Neighborhoods: The Crimes They Experience

Paging McGruff the Crime Dog​We've been plotting which neighborhoods in Houston lead in certain crime categories, but doing that doesn't really get you to the more well-known parts of town. So we decided to zero in on a few specific neighborhoods and see what crime's been going down in them. ... More >>

Jonathan Robert McMinn: Dude, Don't Go to Police HQ to Pick Up the Items You Stole

Jonathan McMinn: Maybe should have just written off his loot​Sometimes a man can take too much pride in his work. He feels he's earned his just rewards and he's going to get them. When the man in question has a common-sense quotient of a sugared-up tween, however, trouble may ensue. Jonathan ... More >>

Home Alone

The 10 Worst Burglary Neighborhoods In Houston (For The Moment)

​What are the best neighborhoods to live in if you want to get burglarized? We've gathered 10 of the finest. We looked at the most recent crime stats for HPD beats, which means the month of October. HPD generally doesn't like "raw data comparisons between police beats" because the info can be ... More >>

Texas Watchdog Offices Broken Into: Begin The Paranoia?

Photo courtesy Texas WatchdogAnyone know where G. Gordon Liddy was this weekend?​Texas Watchdog, the website that does a lot of digging into the spending of governments and politicians, was burglarized over the weekend. The offices in downtown Houston were ransacked and laptops taken, among o ... More >>

Leonard Campbell & Bobby Henry: 150 Montrose Burglaries In The Past Year

Photo courtesy HPDLeonard Campbell​Houston police have arrested two men they believe are responsible for up to 150 burglaries in the Montrose area in the past yearLeonard Campbell, 50, and Bobby Henry, 40, were both arrested this month. HPD says ampbell can be tied to 107 burglaries and Henry to 5 ... More >>

HPD Beating Video: Officials Really Don't Want You To See It

HPD video: Just waiting to break out big on the net​When word first broke that an alleged Houston police beatdown of a teenage had been videotaped, we speculated that law enforcement officials were dreading the day the video went viral. That day is coming closer, and officials are fighting tooth ... More >>

Joyce Espinosa: The Family That Lifts Together Sticks Together

Photo courtesy GCSOJoyce Espinoza is all about the family​And they say that not enough families are spending time together and sharing family activities...Last week, a 42-year-old Webster mom was arrested along with her two teenaged kids after the threesome walked out of a Friendswood HEB with $70 ... More >>

Bad Cop Lesson #248: Don't Rip Off The Non-Criminals

Should've taken pointers from this law enforcement expert.​Times must indeed be tough locally if Houston police are forced to seek "financial assistance" from the civilian population: A Houston police officer has been accused of stealing from drug suspects and those he pulled over in the line ... More >>

A Case of the Vapours

Islands' Nick Thorburn tries to keep track of his bandmates and their aliases.

SugarHill Studios Burglarized Over The Weekend

6:08 p.m.: Updated to include list of stolen gear. Chris GraySugarHill Studios in 2008​ Legendary Houston recording complex SugarHill Studios, subject of the recent book House of Hits by local historian Dr. Roger Wood and studio co-owner/engineer Andy Bradley, was burglarized over the weeken ... More >>

Robert Crais: The First Rule

Actually, there's only one rule: Don't make Joe Pike mad

Marcel Simpson, 19: Bayou Body Count No. 7

​If you try to take my shit, I can shoot your ass.This is the compact all Texans make with each other, whether they want to or not. It is both an unwritten cultural law and a general principle that can be upheld in a court of law.The notion may soon be put to the test, however, in the wake of an a ... More >>

The DA's Victims Rights Division Becomes A Victim Itself

​A year ago, the Houston Press looked into restitution in the state parole system and discovered that in 90 percent of the cases, victims never get all the money that was owed to them.While we can't vouch for the percentage, it looks like victims counting on the Harris County District Attorney's O ... More >>

Boosted Booze and Marvin's Angels

Highlights from the Blog at HOUSTONPRESS.COM

Robbery At The Lone Star Saloon: What Is America Coming To?

Photo by Txrelichunter​Here at Hair Balls and the Houston Press, we really love the Lone Star Saloon. Really. That's why we hope that police take swift action and find the dirty, dirty bastard that stole 21 bottles of liquor from Lone Star last weekend. "I hope they catch the S.O.B.," Joe Lee Thom ... More >>

Rudolph Rides Again

Web exclusive!

Liars, Lovers and Lunatics

Alyson Hannigan’s Sapphic significant other from Buffy the Vampire Slayer also directs

She Really Should Try a Subtler Shade of Red

Who's the Ford Tough Guy Now?

Talky? You Bet!

Sheila Jackson Lee's verbosity leads to a jackpot

Tempting Teens

Does a police sting program make kids into too-easy targets?

Home Alone Again

Panic Room is a great movie -- if you've never seen one

Takedown

Two Rice students had everything going for them -- until their pranks progressed into hard-core crime

Stolen Thunder

Quick fixes for thieves, and long suffering for victims: When guitarists lose their vintage axes

News of the Weird

Hot Plate