The Hangout Shopping Spot - Town East Mall
by: Brian Benitez
What you didn't know about your favorite hangout spot.
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The next time you visit the mall for some last-minute shopping, you might witness a crime without knowing it.
Carhopping, the practice of burglarizing unlocked vehicles in search of anything of value, has become a lucrative "crime of opportunity" across Dallas-Forth Worth.
"In broad daylight, it's a lot harder to break out someone's window than to just lift on the door handle," Mesquite police investigator Autumn Soto said. "It really doesn't draw a whole lot of attention."
One in 5 crimes in Mesquite involve a vehicle break-in or auto theft, and more than a third of those burglaries involve unlocked vehicles, Soto said.
"It takes 20 seconds for a thief to break into your car," she says in a video for the city's public safety campaign. "Please take the time to take, lock, hide."
Those three words, flashing across a 60-foot-tall video board, greet every visitor at Town East Mall. Officers keep watch over the mall and surrounding area on foot, on bike and in parking lot surveillance towers. "We do our best, but they just can't be everywhere," Town East general manager Jack Lowe said. "I've always looked at it as if they're at my parking lot, they're not somewhere else being a deterrent to other things that are going on."
Burglars tend to blend in and act casual as they jiggle door handles, looking for one that's unlocked. Witnesses could be around but who can say whether the vehicle belongs to them or not?
It's not just shopping bags they're after, either. The intruders can be attracted by simple items like a charging cable, thinking a phone could be inside or GPS devices on the windshield. Identity thieves could be after paperwork stashed in glove compartments.
Chris Bosh Gets His Day In Court
by: Maribel Garcia
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Bosh bid to evict mother fails. She wins appeal after judge says notice not 'consistent' with code.
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NBA star Chris Bosh missed his shot at evicting his mother from his DeSoto home Friday, a week after police raided the house in search of drugs.
He sued his mother in October to get her to leave his property - and he won - but she filed an appeal to flip the final ruling in her favor.
Bosh, a former star at Lincoln High School in Dallas, appeared in a Dallas County court Friday for an appeal hearing in the case. Despite the absence of his mother and her attorney, the judge still ruled against the former Miami Heat player. Bosh's notice telling his mother to vacate the property wasn't "consistent" with the Texas property code's requirements, Judge Ken Tapscott wrote in his judgment.
Bosh's mother, Freida, owned the house for a year before he took over ownership in 2005, according to the Dallas County appraisal district. Bosh warned his mother through an attorney's letter in August to vacate the house in the 900 block of St. Georges Place, telling her she was "wrongfully" living on the property valued at $330,000. The attorney threatened a lawsuit if she didn't vacate in a timely manner.
A man who arranged for attorney Richard Pullman's letter to be delivered to Bosh's mother wrote in an affidavit that he got a call from Bosh's mom who said: "Tell Mr. Pullman and my son that this is "MY HOUSE, AND I'M NOT MOVING. Do not contact me again.
Bosh sued her in October. During the first part of December, DeSoto police seized a large amount of drug paraphernalia from the house while executing a search warrant. TMZ Sports reported, citing an unnamed law enforcement official, that Bosh was not believed to have anything to do with the drug activity.
Freida Bosh, 54, told TMZ that her relationship with her son has deteriorated since they "built" the home together around 12 years ago. She denied accusations that she was involved in the alleged drug activity, which she blamed on a former short-term tenant.