Tom Green County Experiences a Rash of Auto Thefts and Burglaries

Automobile burglaries have been rampant in the last few days, as a rash of vehicle-related crimes have been reported in several areas.

 Tom Green County Sheriff’s Deputies were busy Thursday and Friday, investigating 33 auto burglaries and two auto thefts in the Grape Creek area.

“They were looking for contents; in the second stolen vehicle, they took some Christmas presents...and now the hunt for the bad guys is on,” said Tom Green County Sheriff’s Department criminal investigator Lt. Terry Lowe.

Sheriff David Jones said that in almost all of the cases, the vehicles were left unlocked, and the two stolen vehicles in Grape Creek were left unattended with the keys in the ignition.

 Jones said that the auto burglaries were triggered by valuables left in plain sight, but also warned that at least two firearms left inside vehicles were stolen as well.

The Grape Creek auto-burglary saga is an ongoing investigation, and Sheriff Jones said no arrests are made as of yet, but expressed confidence that the case will soon be solved.

Other Auto Burglaries inside San Angelo

Last Saturday, San Angelo police say they rounded up a group of approximately five youths who were accused of burglarizing cars in the vicinity of Southland and Southwest Boulevards, the center of one of San Angelo’s largest middle-class neighborhoods. Police officials said they called the young suspects’ parents, and when they arrived, there were more than a few stern interactions between the parents and their kids. No one was arrested.

The Christoval Auto Theft Ring

On Friday, December 5th, Tom Green County Sheriff’s Deputies investigated the theft of a white 2004 GMC ¾ ton pickup.

According to Sheriff’s reports, the owner of the vehicle, Mitchel Calvert, said that he left the keys in the truck’s cab at his shop located south of San Angelo on US 277. An employee noticed that the keys were missing later that afternoon, and by 4:45 p.m. observed the pickup was missing. After searching the property, Calvert called the Sheriff and filed a report.

Later that evening, at 6:18 p.m., deputies were dispatched to Stonewall Valley Lane, a road that travels east from US 277, just north of Christoval--not far from Calvert’s place. There, a hunter told deputies that he had seen multiple white pickups entering some property he was on “at a high rate of speed”.

At least one of the trucks was seen traveling north, towards Ridge Lane, all-terrain vehicle style, crashing through several fences along the way. Deputies located two white trucks abandoned at the Stonewall Valley Lane address, where the 911 call originated.

Deputies then called the Criminal Investigations Division of the San Angelo Police Department to the scene, after learning that the two trucks were reported stolen in the city. After crime-scene evidence was retrieved, SAPD released both vehicles back to their rightful owners.

Meanwhile, the third pickup was still at-large. According to witnesses at the scene, the suspects had fled to Ridge Road over unimproved ranchland, turned westbound on the roadway, and made it back to US 277 in the third white pickup.

Later that evening, another deputy spotted a red Ford F-250 traveling south on Riverside Golf Course Road with a broken headlamp, and pulled the truck over.

The truck wasn’t stolen, but the driver’s license was flagged by dispatch as being under suspension, and inside the cab were two juveniles who said they were carrying no identification and offered the deputy false identities.

The deputy wasn’t fooled, and in the course of his solo investigation suspected one of the juveniles to be a person of interest in what was beginning to look like a youth auto theft crime group. He called for backup, and contacted the San Angelo Police Department, who were investigating auto thefts in the city.  The juveniles were taken into custody and interviewed.

Based upon the evidence received after the juveniles were taken into custody, Calvert’s pickup was found under the Pecan Creek Bridge at U.S. 277 South. Calvert estimated the damage to his truck after the alleged joy ride was somewhere between $6,000 and $7,000.

Sheriff David Jones said that the other two pickups were stolen from businesses along Old Christoval Road. Jones added that at about the same time, two truck tractors that pull semi-trailers were stolen in Christoval. He suspected that the same people were involved. “They tore up a lot of trucks,” Jones added, and said he believes that all of the players in the Christoval auto-theft group have been apprehended.

What to do?

San Angelo Police Chief Tim Vasquez said that the common denominators for these auto burglaries and thefts are citizens leaving the keys in the car, leaving valuables visible inside the car, and doors being left unlocked.  He said that some of the recent cases involve juveniles, where the punishment is less harsh for auto theft than it is for adults.

“A lot of them know that,” Vasquez said.

In addition to urging citizens to be proactive in securing their vehicles, Vasquez said better parenting can assist in preventing these juvenile crime sprees. “There used to be a program in San Angelo called ‘Right Choices for Youth’,” he said. “They had an ad campaign that I really liked. It said, ‘It’s 10 p.m. Do you know where your kids are?’”