Waco: 80 vehicle windows shot out

[seamusTX]

Since Saturday, approximately 80 vehicles have had windows shot out in Waco and Woodway, apparently with a BB or pellet gun. Police have no lead on a suspect:

http://www.wacotrib.com/news/content/ne ... alism.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

That is a lot a damage. Fixing a broken window costs at least $100 if you do it yourself. A windshield could be over $400.

- Jim

[Oldgringo]

Somebody knows and that somebody will talk for $$$.

At that point, assuming it is minor's doing the deed, the minors should be made famous and sent immediately to reform school and stay at least until their parents make total and public restitution.

No more Mr. Nice Guy due to the age of the criminals!

[seamusTX]

It's hard to believe that a minor could do this much damage and not tell someone who spread the story by now. The motivation behind this kind of thing is usually bragging rights.

If I were in that area, I would want to see the distribution of times and locations of the vandalism, possibly to indicate where the perpetrator lives and how he is traveling. I'm surprised the newspaper reporting didn't dig for a little more detail.

I agree that if it's a minor, which is likely, the parents should be taken to task. Unfortunately, they are quite often dysfunctional and indigent.

- Jim

[Oldgringo]

It's hard to believe that a minor could do this much damage and not tell someone who spread the story by now. The motivation behind this kind of thing is usually bragging rights.

If I were in that area, I would want to see the distribution of times and locations of the vandalism, possibly to indicate where the perpetrator lives and how he is traveling. I'm surprised the newspaper reporting didn't dig for a little more detail.

I agree that if it's a minor, which is likely, the parents should be taken to task. Unfortunately, they are quite often dysfunctional and indigent.

- Jim

Fifteen years ago, during construction of the Hodge Unit, we had an act of vandalism. A $500 reward leading to the arrest, etc. had the perps in jail almost before the weekly newspaper came out.

[The Annoyed Man]

They'll never catch 'em. It happened to me once in California. There was a rash of this type of vandalism in my town, where teenagers were driving up and down streets shooting out the windows of cars with a pellet gun. They shot out the window of the company vehicle I was driving while it was parked out in front of my house one night. They shot a bunch other windows out on my street that night. The cop who took the report said that it was happening all over town (Altadena), and that hundreds of cars had been hit in the previous couple of weeks. The perps were never caught. They just eventually stopped doing it when people started watching out for it.

[Purplehood]

My guess is that whatever individuals are doing this are just going to neighborhoods that they would normally never hang out in and taking out their hormonal imbalances on random victims. They then move onto another neighborhood and do it until they no longer get any jollies or feel that their luck has run out.
No pattern, no apparent motive.

[seamusTX]

It's very difficult to perform a series of actions at truly random times or locations. Most criminals aren't that smart.

Most kids who commit crimes do so in their own neighborhoods or a target neighborhood, say, a school athletic rival.

Many times kids commit crimes such as vandalism and burglary at their own schools.

- Jim

[Purplehood]

I speak from personal experience. Maybe it was isolated, but I can only postulate based on what I saw.

[KD5NRH]

If I were in that area, I would want to see the distribution of times and locations of the vandalism, possibly to indicate where the perpetrator lives and how he is traveling. I'm surprised the newspaper reporting didn't dig for a little more detail.

We had a series of them here over a couple of nights. The pattern was so blindingly obvious that they were caught in the act pretty quickly once all the prior damage had been found and reported. Altogether they easily had enough total damage for felony criminal mischief, but I believe it was ultimately charged as over a dozen misdemeanors, with lots of community service.

Frankly, with CHL numbers around here well above the state average, and lots of hunters who still keep long guns in truck racks, they're really lucky they weren't mistaken for a driveby shooting with a real gun.

[RKirby]

Kids were driving around shooting inflatable Christmas yard ornaments with a BB or pellet gun from the back of a pickup in my neighborhood a few days back. Probably the same ones who also shot at my wife's new car while my son was driving it two weeks before in the same general area. Fortunately they hit the rear fender above the gas filler instead of the side window and possibly injuring (or worse) my son.

I'd like to have about ten minutes alone with those juvenile delinquents to have a short discussion on "gun safety" before I turn them over to the cops.