Crime In The Heights

[VicMan]

And to remind these dolts to take a class on how to lock car doors after they park them.

And also to check how their automobiles or the automobiles they drive lock; some cars can be locked automatically, but others (older and/or more inexpensive models) must be locked manually on all sides.

[heights1]

posted to heights kids group this morning:

oakridge/norhill:

I received this message from friends this morning: We saw a guy trying to break into cars tonight (Feb 18th) walking down our street. He was just pulling up handles, probably looking for an easy target. We called the cops and about 30 minutes later the cops called back and said they picked up the guy, that he had a bunch of other people's stuff with him.

Please pass this along to the heights email groups you may be part of. If someone's car was broken into tonight, chances are that this guy had your stuff, and now the cops have it. Remind your friends they need to report any suspicious activity to keep the cops patrolling our hood. The cops came by about 10 minutes after we called. Not bad.

Does anyone have the case number for the guy that was picked up yesterday? The person I called at HPD told me it would require her to "perform a miracle" to look up the case.

[samiamj]

As discussed in the Town Hall meeting at the Heights Library February 2, 2009, Congresswoman Jackson Lee would like to initiate a Greater Heights Crime Prevention Task Force. The first meeting is scheduled for Saturday, February 28, 2009, 3:30-4:30 P.M. at the West End Multi-Service Center, 170 Heights Blvd, Houston, TX 77007.

At the meeting we will discuss a plan to protect our neighborhoods and determine the next steps to take action on.

To RSVP, contact Michael Halpin at (713) 655-0050 or mailto:michael.halpin@mail.house.gov

Michael A. Halpin, District Administrator

Office of Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee

Edited February 26, 2009 by samiamj

[20thStDad]

There are 5 crime threads for the Heights now so I figure this is as good as any - yesterday we were riding our bikes and noticed a car driving around aimlessly, not looking lost but at the same time not going anywhere direct. They ended up pulling into the alley and just parking on the block of Arlington, Columbia, 16th, and 17th. This was just before 6pm. I didn't see them do anything and being with wife and kid wasn't really going to approach them, but if anyone knows of something that went down around there, I have the license plate and make/model of the car. It was not someone who live there.

[samiamj]

http://www.shadyacres.org/index.php?topic=188.0

The Houston Police Department has set up e-mail addresses for residents needing to report suspicious activities in their neighborhoods. Witnesses of occurring crimes should still call 911 or 713-884-3131.

[kylejack]

Hey Sheila, can we please have a task force in the East End too? We have more crime than the lily-white Heights, if that helps.

[Heightsite]

http://www.shadyacres.org/index.php?topic=188.0

The Houston Police Department has set up e-mail addresses for residents needing to report suspicious activities in their neighborhoods. Witnesses of occurring crimes should still call 911 or 713-884-3131.

[heights_yankee]

Hey Sheila, can we please have a task force in the East End too? We have more crime than the lily-white Heights, if that helps.

i'm sure you can if you and your neighbors get more vocal about it. we wrote letters to every city council member, the congresswoman, the mayor and any one else who we thought might listen. do the same and have 3x as many people show up to your meeting as expected and you'll get a task force too. but be aware that the task force is going ot be made up from people from your neighborhood and that the congresswoman is doing nothing but facilitating it. in the lilywhite heights, we are (finally) ready to take our safety in to our own hands.

20th street- police storefront has said report and and all suspicious activity.

if you don't necessarily want to be on the task force, but do want to have an audience with the police that patrol the heights, here is another meeting:

This meeting is going to kick off a NEW PROGRAM called:

Keep Houston Safe Program In the Heights

with Chief of Police Harold Hurrt, Houston Police Department Command Staff Members, Central Division, and the Mounted Patrol Unit, congresswoman Shiela Jackson Lee, and other city council members from the City of Houston.

Keep Houston Safe is a citywide collaborative partnership between citizens, businesses and the Houston Police Department. The main focus is crime prevention and the implementation of proactive crime prevention efforts aimed at the elimination of criminal incidents, rather than responding to them after they occurred.

This information was sent to us from an Officer over our beat:

Officer Carol Trautwein

713-222-5196

[cumby]

I thought for sure that this thread was about the elderly couple robbed at gunpoint in front of the Candlelight Hills park, right on the edges of Candlelight Hills and Oak Forest a couple weeks ago. From the sketch and neighborhood gossip, it seems to be an African-American young man who has been seen at the nearby basketball court. But geez it sucks, I bring my kid there and won't go now unless other parents are already there. Like three moms will make a difference, but still.

I live right near Oak Forest in that little bitty Brookwoods Estates backing up to that shady Sherwood Lane at TC Jester - bleh. My whole family had guns pulled on us in our own driveway and even with several calls HPD couldn't be bothered to come out. I've about given up, frankly.

[samiamj]

Good afternoon Greater Heights community stakeholders,

Per the Heights Crime Prevention Task Force meeting this past Saturday (February 28), facilitated by Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, I was tasked with reinstating the dormant status of the Greater Heights Super Neighborhood Council (SNC). To summarize my portion of the meeting, below are some summary points:

I was introduced and a brief overview of the SN program, the Greater Heights SNC, and how can we reinstate the council into an active working forum.

I explained that the Greater Heights SNC is currently an officially recognized council (March 2000) and this crime prevention task force forum would be a great way to reinstate the council into an active status.

I passed around a sign-in sheet for those attendees who are interested in this reinstatement process. I mentioned that I'd e-blast a tentative meeting location, time, and date to begin this process.

I presented a base map of the Greater Heights SN. As a hand-on exercise (per the end of the meeting), I asked civic association board members or designees to illustrate on the base map (using the markers I provided) what are the defined civic association boundaries. Some subdivisions fall under the umbrella of a civic association.

I emphasized that we (Planning Dept.) are continually updating our civic association database and need the stakeholders' assistance to identify the active civic associations within the Greater Heights SN along with the primary contact persons. I supplied a list of existing civic associations, per our database, and asked to update the list. Below are the civic associations we have in our database for the Greater Heights SN:

Sunset Heights

East Sunset Heights

Houston Heights Association

Heights West Homeowners Group

Shady Acres

Clark Pines

Proctor Plaza

Montie-Beach

Woodland Heights

Brooke-Smith

Bradshaw

Highlighted in BLUE are the civic associations that are updated within our civic association database (as of 2008). Attached is a link to update your civic association with the City of Houston: http://www.houstontx.gov/planning/forms/CivAssocForm1.doc. For those civic associations not updated with the City Houston, please fill out the form and fax it back to me (713-837-7923).

The Congresswoman positively echoed this initiative by encouraging the attendees that a SNC is a proactive means of being one greater voice before City, County, and federal officials -- holistic representatives of the greater Heights community. In essence, the attendees at the crime prevention task force meeting are the coalition of the SNC.

The next steps of the Greater Heights SNC reinstatement process will be to e-blast a meeting invitation. Right now, I'm scouting area park community centers in the Heights as a potential location site. The Heights branch library community room is booked for most of March. Therefore, some tentative dates and meeting times (per the availability of Love Park Community Centers) are cited below:

Monday, March 16 - 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. - Love Park Community Center (1000 West 12th St.)

Monday, March 30 - 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. -- Love Park Community Center (1000 West 12th St.)

Because it is tournament basketball season at the Love Park Community Center for the month of April, the Monte-Beach Park Community Center (915 Northwood St.) will be the location site for our April meetings. I'll inform you of those tentative April evening dates (6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.) at the March 16 meeting.

The tentative agenda for the SNC re-formation process includes:

Identifying the existing stakeholders within the Greater Heights SN boundary (i.e. area civic associations, Chamber of Commerce, etc.)

Amending the existing SNC bylaws and organizational framework to reflect the re-formation process

Discussing the web-sharing initiative within the Greater Heights SN

among area civic association websites

residents to residents

Establishing a set meeting time, date, and location to continue the SNC re-formation process (I'll pre-schedule the Monte-Beach Park Community Center for the month of April. We'll discuss definite April dates at the March 16 meeting)

FYI, before I release everyone's e-mail on this e-distribution for public view, I feel more comfortable asking who does not want their e-mail shared with the general group. Until we address this further at the March 16 meeting, I've BBC'd everyone on this e-mail and will do the same on the friendly reminder e-mail next week.

Congresswoman Lee asked Michael Halpin to continue partnering with the Planning Dept. as we push the SNC re-formation process. Again, I'll forward a friendly reminder next week about our first Greater Heights SNC re-formation meeting on Monday, March 16 from 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at the Love Park Community Center (1000 West 12th St. - between Shepherd Dr. & Herkimer St.).

If you know of anyone that may want to participate in this SNC re-formation process, please bring them along. Contact me if you have any questions. Thanks.

Donald R. Perkins, Planner Leader

City of Houston Planning & Development Department

Neighborhood Planning Services Division

P.O. Box 1562

Houston, TX 77251-1562

713-837-7803 (office)

713-837-7923 (fax)

donald.perkins@cityofhouston.net

[native_Houstonian]

Heck, I didn't see this. This right around the corner from mi casa!

[BryanS]

Beware the Burger King on Ella Blvd...

[native_Houstonian]

Beware the Burger King on Ella Blvd...

Rather cryptic....what do you mean by that?

[heights_yankee]

i am now taking serious exception to the "houston's older neighborhoods" comment since there have been multiple armed robberies in the woodlands over the last couple of months. why must the news make ITL so scary? the suburbanites already wear their bullet proof vests to come this way for Lights in the Heights

[Orikal]

A few months back our neighbor's sister, who also lives in OF, had their home burglarized during the day while they were at work. The suspects were later caught breaking into another Oak Forest home.

The same couple also awoke 2 or 3 weeks ago to find their Tahoe on blocks in their driveway. Apparently someone stole their rims in the middle of the night while they were sleeping. Their bedroom is in the back of the home, so they never heard anything.

While non of the crimes I've read/heard about appear to be violent, I have started keeping a loaded gun close at hand in bed. I don't see myself as overly reactionary, but I have certainly started to worry about the rising crime level in the neighborhood, especially with a 4 month old daughter.

Edited March 6, 2009 by Orikal

[BryanS]

Rather cryptic....what do you mean by that?

It involved the walk-in freezer at the BK... and the employees from accross the street at KFC, coming to rescue those employees. Oh - and bullets. And ducking for cover from the bullets, in the freezer.

Happened a few years ago...

[heights_yankee]

yeah, but these kinds of incidents, in and off themselves, don't make an area "crime ridden" or dangerous. when i lived in dallas, i had to stop going to my fave bagel place in a very swank part of town b/c they found two employees dead in the walk in. i creeped me out too much to go there to eat anymore (in fact, i think it closed soon after) but it certainly didn't make the neighborhood an automatic crime magnet. crap like this happens everywhere, all the time...

Edited March 7, 2009 by heights_yankee

[BryanS]

yeah, but these kinds of incidents, in and off themselves, don't make an area "crime ridden" or dangerous. when i lived in dallas, i had to stop going to my fave bagel place in a very swank part of town b/c they found two employees dead in the walk in. i creeped me out too much to go there to eat anymore (in fact, i think it closed soon after) but it certainly didn't make the neighborhood an automatic crime magnet. crap like this happens everywhere, all the time...

It sure does. Just keep driving north on Ella... past 43rd... past Pinemont... Tidwell... keep going...

Living on Ella, at one point in my life, watching the traffic going up and down that street was interesting to watch, from the living room window.

I kept devising, in my mind, how I could go about installing my own remote controlled "speed ramps" into/onto the street. So when a car was speeding down Ella... I could press a button... a ramp, about 30 degrees, would emerge from the road surface at just the right moment... and given the high rate of speed, and weight, these cars had:

TO THE MOON, BUDDY! That'll teach you from speeding down my street again!

EDIT: Oh and yes... someone did break into the house and stole some items. And on a separate incident, some renters, about three houses down, had the nerve to steal our COH trash container. Under the cover of darkness, we did steal it back. Ella Blvd/that part of OF is kinda 'hoodish.

Edited March 7, 2009 by BryanS

[Tricky Matt]

Anyone know anything about this?? I'm not 100% comfortable using the term "Home Invasion", but it's implied in the story.

From the Proctor Plaza website:

"I was walking my dogs this morning (Friday, 3/6) and saw a police car outside of the home at 1016 West Cottage - a rental property. I saw the renter (a neighbor) talking to the policeman and the doors of the home were open. When I asked what was going on, the neighbor said "We got broken into last night!" I asked, "Were you guys at home?" and he said "Yes." These criminals are getting very brave and dangerous. Be carful out there!!!!"

Edited March 12, 2009 by Tricky Matt

[ashleybear]

I'm not sure who this is that's posting about this, but this actually happened to us. I had been told that people had responded to my thred and were skeptical and was reading my original thread on the woodland heights board and was like, uh, no? Then I thought about this site and checked and voila! It all makes sense. First of all, this didn't happen on a Friday or at night. It was Monday, November 10 between 1:30 PM and 5:30 PM. We have a two car garage, but the way our house sits on our lot it's impossible to get two cars into the garage without taking off side of the house. So, previous owners converted half of the garage into an outdoor room. When they did, they simply framed up the wall and put insulation on the garage side, then of course dry wall on the side where the room was.

When the intruders came in, they kicked a hole through the wall:

http://images42.fotki.com/v1376/photos/3/3...652/wall-vi.jpg

(Sorry it's not a good picture, I took it with my camera phone)

They then proceeded to steal all of our tools (which we didn't realize until Saturday), our lawnmower, some hedge clippers, our gas blower and my husbands old Schwinn bike. The bike wasn't a huge loss as it was very old, but we had just paid over $200 to get it tuned, new tires and tubes and new handlebars because they were dryrotted (yeah, it was that sweet of a bike, LOL, but it's the priciple of the matter).

During the hurricane, we were completely locked of our garage, so we vowed to put a door in between that room and the garage. When I got home and let the dog out that evening, the door to the back room was open because she ran in there to get of the rain. Thinking that was strange, I flipped on the light and saw the hole. I initially thought perhaps my husband had gotten ambitious the day before and when he walked outside I grilled him. When he had no clue, we checked into the garage and realize what was gone. My husband goes home for lunch every day and leaves around 1:30PM -- I walked in the door at around 5:30PM, so there was a small window for them to do this. Our dog was a smaller puppy at the time, crated in the main house, so there was no way she would have scared them off. The fact that it was storming outside hit the noise quite a bit from the street or anywhere else. That and the house next door is empty and for sale, and the owner on the other side works so wouldn't have been home. And we did fix the problem -- thick plywood all the way down the wall of the garage and a door with a deadbolt.

Needless to say, I was wondering why someone wouldn't believe that it happened, especially when I had a picture posted as proof, and now I know why. It's an awfully insane way to get robbed so I can understand how it could seem unbelievable, especially when presented sans the proper facts and visuals.

Edited March 9, 2009 by ashleybear

[kylejack]

I'm fairly confident that you made this factoid up. If I am incorrect, I'd love to see the source, since it conflicts with what I know about residential burglaries.

Anything with a serial number is often not pawned, because it gets immediately flagged as stolen merchandise after the victim reports the theft to the police.

[ashleybear]

Oh, and yes, they left that set of golf clubs. They also left an old TV (that's really not that old) that was sitting out there since we had no place for it inside and were trying to figure out what to do with it (sell it, donate, etc.). They REALLY wanted our tools and lawn equipment. As well as speakers and a stereo tuner or whatever it is. Granted those are both older, from my husbands childhood/teen years, so they're probably not of as much value anymore (then again neither was the bike -- but I can't understand their frame of thought).

Edited March 9, 2009 by ashleybear

[p dub]

That is news to me but I do know my neighbor (North St. and Houston Ave - Woodland Heights) got burglarized on Sat. the 6th around 1:00 pm . My neighbors called the cops and the idiots, 4 guys and 1 girl, got caught trying to come back by the scene. So all ended well over here but this is getting outta hand.

[lovedaheights]

So the police have been out searching the neighborhood in the Shady Acres area tonight for over an hour. Somebody tell me you've heard the helicopter??? We have seen police cars, officers on foot with dogs, etc. How can we find out what happened???

[Urbannomad]

All I know is that it began as a"high speed chase down 18th" and devolved from there. Not sure why exactly the chase began in the first place. Last I had heard they caught one guy but are still looking for the other. Unfortunately, if it didn't involve a murder or something else crazy we'll probably never know. This is at least the 3rd time in 2 years I've seen this happen in our neighborhood and I've yet to ever hear any back story.

[lovedaheights]

I would think you would have to do something pretty bad to get a helicopter after you. Somebody broke into our house while we were sleeping in the middle of the night a couple years ago...we had a couple officers shoe up (quickly) but no choppers. While I hope there was no murder or something like that, that's kind of what I was thinking may have happened. Regardless, I hope they catch the guy...

[RedScare]

Eh, if it's a slow night and the pilot is bored, the chopper may show up for almost anything. It's already in the air, so they may chase just about about any moron dumb enough to run. For all I know, if it gets really slow, they might even buzz cows.

[Urbannomad]

Searched on google and if you go to http://harris.tx.scanamerica.us/modules.php?name=FeedArchive and start listening on the 05/27/2009 feed at ~ 9:39.22 you can listen to the chase. It goes on for quite a while, in and out through the next couple of feeds. Started as a Chevy Impala not stopping for a cop and then ended with a foot chase in Shady A. I never heard them say what they did, but probably just stupid and didn't want to pull over for one reason or another. I see the ghetto bird all the time and have to agree with RedScare, probably nothing as big as a murder.

[EMME]

Searched on google and if you go to http://harris.tx.scanamerica.us/modules.php?name=FeedArchive and start listening on the 05/27/2009 feed at ~ 9:39.22 you can listen to the chase. It goes on for quite a while, in and out through the next couple of feeds. Started as a Chevy Impala not stopping for a cop and then ended with a foot chase in Shady A. I never heard them say what they did, but probably just stupid and didn't want to pull over for one reason or another. I see the ghetto bird all the time and have to agree with RedScare, probably nothing as big as a murder.

We had a chase with police the other day on my street. Here's how the story unfolded for me.

I went to the Sunset Heights neighborhood association last Thursday. Somebody on my street but several blocks down had their door kicked in and computer equipment stolen on the day of the floods (week ago last Tuesday), six kids were seen and the neighbor got their license plate number and reported it. Police confirmed it was not a stolen car and car was known to be owned by gang member. OK, so I heard about that on Thursday evening. Friday, I went home for lunch and back to work. Friday at 5:00 my neighbor directly across the street came home and discovered his front door kicked in and computer equipment stolen. His pit bull and aggressive australian shepherd were still in his yard. So I went down the street to see if anybody had seen anything. Well, it seems that right after I left home from lunch, there had been a chase involving a car with four kids and an unmarked police car with plainclothesmen. The car lost control and ended up in a ditch. They caught three, one got away. Just before they lost control, they tossed a shotgun out the window. They had robbed and beaten a man from one of the locations maybe off of Airline.

I am now again using my alarm system, though so far I have been the only one to set it off.

The police dept issues crime reports each month. So if you really want to know, wait for the May crime report and it will show the dry details. The juicy, inside story you have to get from people like me who love to tell their stories.

[kylejack]

There were about 50 cop cars parked on Memorial last night. Also, I saw that the flags at the police memorial on Memorial Dr. were at half-mast. I wonder what for.