by Julie Segraves
Residents of the 7300 block of north Honore awoke Saturday morning to police tape, evidence technicians and the bomb and arson squad.
Shortly after 4am, unknown assailants went down the block, selected 7 cars, stuffed the gas inlet with paper and set them on fire. The owner of one car saw the flames and called the fire department.
The selection of cars appeared to be random, but one of the officers from bomb and arson theorized that probably more than one person went down the block and flipped the doors to find the ones that would open without having to push a button from inside the car. The other common characteristic of the chosen cars was they all had large gas tanks.
They were a combination of SUV's and a couple of late 80's or early 90's vintage automobiles. The evidence technician worked each car taking pictures and dusting for prints. He wasn't too hopeful because "opening the fuel door is like opening a drawer." The offenders took all of the gas caps which would have provided better prints.
Bomb and Arson investigators said they would take the prints back and laser them to see if they could get an image. One speculated that if they got one guy, he wouldn't want to go down for seven counts alone. He'll say I did that one but I didn't do the other ones. That's how it usually works.
The officers canvassed the block and spoke to neighbors to see if they had seen or heard anything unusual. One woman told then she thought she heard something in her yard and looked but saw nothing. She said she couldn't sleep though because she still felt uneasy.
Another neighbor said he heard his garbage can lid shut. This prompted victims to start looking in the garbage cans to see if they could find their gas caps.
The offenders, for the most part, were unsuccessful. The paper fuses burned out without doing any damage. The one car that did catch on fire destroyed the area around the gas cap and melted his tire.
Bomb and arson is investigating the crime.
4 comments:
Targeting gas guzzlers? . . . Was this an act of ecoterrorism or just someone hoping to get the biggest bang for his buck?
We had a garbage can blow up on Sunday morning over at 6930 N. Lakewood. 5' of flames were shooting out of it after a loud "boom." The suspicious thing is the can was inside a locked back courtyard. Quite suspicious indeed...
We called the FD and all is okay- no damage no one hurt etc...
There appears to be a property damage rampage going on that reminds me of RP in '98 or '99 when we suffered similar vandalism. About a week ago car windows were smashed on the 1400 block of Estes, and then next night around the corner on Greenview). Two fences were destroyed on the 1500 block of Estes over the weekend. We fixed our fence on Ashland last weekend and we have a little bet going on how long it will take before it's destroyed again. One neighbor theorized that the drug dealers conscript the wannabe bangers to wreck havoc around the 'hood which distracts police from their more profitable activities.
Yes, you too can live in RP and suffer hooliganism (we've been fighting it since 1991), property damage, B&E or assault(if you are really lucky), only a handful of dining options, a community council that can't even properly host a garden walk that more than 30 people attend, and so much more including the regular dumping of trash on your yard and parkway. And all it will cost you is your mortgage or rent which will be skyrocketing in '07. For those who have not calculated their potential new property tax tab based on the new assessments, I've done the heavy lifting for you. Most property owners will be looking at a 100%+ increase over 2005.
And people complain about apartment building owners who do condo conversions -- they are simply getting out while the getting is good. Speaking of which, another rental building bites the dust on the 1600 block of Touhy. The '60s or '70s building on the south side of the street with the funky blue wrought iron fence has been sold and emptied, and new guy will be converting. Hope prospective buyers are reading hell hole!
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