Cold Spaghetti

You tell me. How would this message, from the President of our Neighborhood Association, make you feel? Two of these incidents were within 3 blocks of our house.

Dear Neighbors:

We have had several reports of crime in and around our neighborhood in
the past few weeks. Below are specific incidents relayed by neighbors
with first-hand knowledge or alerts sent out by the NOPD, which I
forward for your information. Note that some of these incidents
occurred in broad daylight, prior to commencement of the evening patrols
by the BCP/Palance organization.

… …

And now, some recent incidents:
August 9: Mugging
On August 9th at or about 9:45 pm, a 24 year old male was walking home
from the Winn Dixie, located at 5400 Tchoupitoulas Street. As he was
walking northbound on Jefferson (near Atlanta Street), the victim was
approached by an unknown black male subject. The subject asked the
victim for a “light”, at which time the victim advised that he did not
smoke. As they passed each other, the subject came up from behind and
pressed an unknown object into the victim’s side – implying he had a
gun. The victim was then robbed of approximately $27 in cash.
The suspect is described as a 17-20 year old black male, 5’9″, 160
pounds, clean shaven, short hair, dark complexion, wearing a dark shirt,
no further information.

Burglaries/Property crimes: Various dates
“Our car was broken into in front of our house (August 2) on the corner
of Annunciation and Joseph. Believe it happened during the day. They
smashed in the back passenger window.

“We also had someone go into our back yard and take a bike, and other
tools a few weeks ago — again during the middle of the day.

“A neighbor on Laurel and Joseph had their back door kicked in and their
house burglarized.

“A neighbor on Annunciation between Nashville and Arabella had their
back door busted with a large brick and their house burglarized. All
these events happened in the last month or so.

“Last week 2 guys were attempting to take a car — they were caught in
the act and then ran to hide out in a neighbors back porch. The police
caught one of the guys.”

August 20: Burglary Arrest Reported by NOPD
NOPD: Late last week, Second District Detectives were working an auto
burglary investigation, where a credit card was taken and used at a
local convenience store. As they were looking at the surveillance video
of the suspect, a cooperating individual recognized the person in the
video. They supplied the suspect’s name, address and some additional
information on him. Detectives continued their investigation, which
leads to a search warrant being executed at 5831 Tchoupitoulas Street.
Inside the location, detectives discovered a large cache of stolen
property – all of which was taken in car burglaries. Recovered property
includes electronic items like ipods and laptop computers.
Detectives also arrested the suspect, who was identified as Charles
Benson (WM [white male], 12/21/71). When interrogated, Benson confesses
to committing several dozen auto burglaries in the Second District. He
supplied detailed information on many of the car burglary incidents.
Thus far, Benson has been charged in over a dozen of the offenses.
At this point, Detectives are attempting to match the recovered property
to individual cases, so that the property can be returned to the owners.

August 20: Attempted Homicide
NOPD: On August 20th at or about 5:30pm, three young black males were
observed riding bicycles on along Webster Street. The suspects were
checking door handles of parked cars. A witness to the activity followed
the suspects in his vehicle. The witness confronted the suspects at
Arabella Street and Garfield Street, challenging their actions. At that
time, one of the suspects pulled out a handgun and fired at the witness.
One bullet struck the witnesses vehicle, but the witness was unharmed.
A .380 caliber casing was located on the scene. There are no
descriptions on the three suspects.

—————–
Please stay vigilant.