Burglary and Car Crashes High on Thursday

As sunlight streams through the office windows and puddles form where once glazed over ice ponds thaw, the words “winter weather” are on the tips everyone’s tongues—or at least at the tips of journalists fingers.

Yesterday, at around 2:00 p.m., the makings for a citywide ice rink began falling to the ground in drops of precipitation, and by 5:30 p.m. the state was talking about disaster.

Luckily for San Angelo, this notion of impending doom seems to have deterred a lot of criminal activity, as SAPD calls for service and Tom Green County inmate bookings show a different trend for Thursday: traffic.

Between 5:45 and 7:20 p.m. Thursday, there were 11 calls for service pertaining to motor vehicle accidents, hit and runs and assist to motorists. Many of the calls sprung up within minutes of one another, and that all over town, some with injuries, some without, others unknown.

By 9:39 p.m. the toll had reached 15, however calls had waned as the hour got late. This doesn’t mean that there was no crime on Thursday, just comparatively little than in days previous.

Of the 12 inmates booked into the Tom Green County Jail, four were there on driving related offenses and three were booked for either burglary or theft. There was only one possession charge Thursday and one charge for marijuana.

Of the calls for service made to the SAPD on Thursday, burglary/theft remained high—predominately in the wee morning hours between midnight and 9:00 a.m., when about half the total calls took place. Overall, there were circa 20 such calls throughout the day.

Several routine traffic stops were made, there were about 7 domestic disturbance calls, and another handful of suspicious persons reported lurking about neighborhoods.

Of those arrested yesterday, we’ve chosen to highlight 32-year-old Michael Ray Flores who’s decided to start his criminal career just this year! Flores got his first charge back in 1998 for a Minor in Possession, then laid low till Sept. 4 of this year, when he was booked for Possession of Drug Paraphernalia. On Nov. 14, Flores was arrested for Evading Arrest/Detention and two counts of Failure to Appear, with yet another Possession of Drug Paraphernalia charge. Yesterday, Flores added Burglary of a Habitation to his growing rap sheet, and was caught in possession of a controlled substance as well.