Crime Report: Highland Park Cops Were in Hot Pursuit of Third-Row-Seat Thief
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HPDPS officers were in hot pursuit of a Dodge pickup that has been connected to third-row seat thefts in the Park Cities. We imagine it felt a lot like a chase scene from “Dukes of Hazzard.”
As I figured out how to succinctly tell this tale, I couldn’t help but hear the giggles of Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane in my mind.
Just before 9 p.m. on Nov. 5, a Highland Park officer began tailing a tan-and-blue Dodge Dakota near the intersection of Bordeaux Avenue and Lomo Alto Drive. The officer suspected the pickup may have been connected to a recent string of third-row-seat thefts from SUVs.
The truck meandered through the streets of Highland Park — with its driver using a turn signal no fewer than four times — before accelerating northbound on Roland Avenue. When the pickup ran the stop sign at Beverly Drive, the officer turned on his overhead lights. The pursuit continued at higher speeds as the truck turned right on Mockingbird Lane – without using a signal, of course.
By the time the truck approached Highland Park Village, the officer had communicated to dispatch that the chase was on. A second officer, who had been working an off-duty shift at the shopping center, turned on his lights and became the primary pursuer, chasing the truck as it circumnavigated the Dallas Country Club, then backtracked on Mockingbird toward the Dallas North Tollway.
The second officer continued to pursue the truck in the Tollway’s southbound lanes, where the chase reached speeds exceeding 100 mph. But the officer had to break off his pursuit after two cars got between his patrol vehicle and the truck as it exited on to Interstate 35.
Click through for a roundup of last week’s other residential crimes in the Park Cities.
HIT-AND-RUN ACCIDENTS
Between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. on Nov. 6, a blue Chevrolet Tahoe sustained a large dent in its driver’s side door in the 4400 block of Fairfax Avenue.
At 9:12 p.m. on Nov. 6, a witness saw a silver 2015 BMW X5 collide with a black 2001 Land Rover Discovery that was parked in the 2700 block of Purdue Street. The BMW fled the scene.
Between 9 p.m. on Nov. 6 and 7:30 a.m. on Nov. 7, an unknown vehicle hit a white 2007 Ford Expedition in the 3500 block of Haynie Avenue.
Between 5 p.m. on Nov. 6 and 11:25 a.m. on Nov. 7, a black 2011 Ford Edge sustained an undisclosed amount of damage in the 3400 block of McFarlin Boulevard.
At 1:20 a.m. on Nov. 9, a reckless driver destroyed a garage door in the 6600 block of Airline Road before fleeing the scene.
VANDALISM
Between 2 and 6 p.m. on Nov. 5, a miscreant threw mud at the back of a house in the 4400 block of Potomac Avenue.
At 2 a.m. on Nov. 7, two masked individuals used machetes to slice and dice pumpkins in front of a house in the 3500 block of Saint Johns Drive. The crime was recorded on the victim’s security cameras. The victim believes both of the vandals are teenagers, as one of these geniuses was clearly wearing a Highland Park High School letterman’s jacket.
UNLOCKED VEHICLES
It wouldn’t be a Park Cities police blotter without at least one unlocked car. Between 8 a.m. on Nov. 3 and 8 a.m. on Nov. 4, a thief entered a white 2013 Ford Escape that had been left unlocked in the 3500 block of Cornell Avenue and stole the keys that the victim left in the ignition. No physical evidence could be found, because the victim used another key to drive the Escape to his job before he reported the theft. An officer advised the victim to change the locks on his vehicle and his house; we can only assume that he also advised the victim to use them.
