There are legal ways for stores to deal with hot checks. They can contact the customer and convince him or her to pay up. Failing that, they can go to small claims court. They can file a police report. They can even post offenders’ photos at the cash register as…
As the Texas Legislature’s special session drones on, the state’s lawmakers are grappling with what to do with teenagers — specifically with 17-year-olds convicted of murder. Last Thursday the Senate approved mandatory life sentencing with parole for 17-year-olds convicted of capital murder — with the option of parole coming 40…
We’re not sure exactly what authorities thought was going on in the storefront Asian massage parlors that dot strip centers across North Texas. They seem to have taken the ads promising “Fantastic Good Massage” from “Cute & Pretty Staff” at face value. Plano Police Chief Greg Rushin says his department…
Out of the entire universe full of objects of potential interest to human beings, there’s only one thing Clayton Earthman enjoys enough to like on Facebook. It’s Doomsday Preppers, the National Geographic reality show about otherwise sane Americans steeling themselves for the post-apocalyptic nightmare they’re sure is just around the…
At first glance, the ads proclaiming last week’s grand opening of the JJ Health Center might have appeared to suggest something more than a massage. The massive amounts of cleavage, the pining eyes and lingerie uniforms of the “Friendly Charming Attentants,” the scantily clad masseuse doing what appears to be…
Ever since 25-year-old Clinton Allen was shot and killed by Officer Clark Staller, Allen’s family has been calling for action against the officer and the Dallas Police Department. Collette Flanagan, Allen’s mother, filed an ethics complaint against police Chief David Brown claiming that DPD never informed the FBI about Allen’s…
A 3-year-old boy drowned in a swimming pool in far North Dallas yesterday afternoon, according a statement just issued by the Dallas police. DPD’s report says that Genesis Gregory went with his grandfather and uncle to a house in the 6600 block of Ridgeview Circle, where the men were providing…
It’s an urge that all but the most upright among us have fought at one time or another. The unoccupied snack-cake delivery truck idling in front of the store, its unprotected cargo beckoning. Surely no one would miss a box or two, you tell yourself before dismissing the thought, deciding…
Update: Arlington Police Chief Will Johnson agrees. Original post: There were a lot of surprising details that emerged as the feds were filing criminal charges against Arlington police officer Thomas Kantzos. There was the casual way Kantzos tipped off his steroid dealer, scuttling another agency’s investigation, and the detail about…
There was a time, about a century ago, when prostitution was perfectly legal in Dallas at least so long as it took place in Frogtown, the city’s official red-light district. It was a decidedly pragmatic way of dealing with the world’s oldest profession, but it wouldn’t last. The state’s Supreme…
Fernando Garcia was after gas, not sex, when he pulled his Ford pickup into to the Exxon station at Laureland Road and Interstate 35 on Wednedsay afternoon. Nor was he aiming to get laid when he was approached by a youngish, blond woman asking for a ride. The 61-year-old told…
Jan Daniels was at home at 9:40 this morning, but she wasn’t opening the door. She lives in a quiet and generally crime-free neighborhood of winding streets off Preston and Keller Springs in Far North Dallas, but she didn’t recognize the three men at her door. So, the 60-year-old stood…
The news hit the Arlington Police Department like a ton of bricks: On Tuesday afternoon, a three-year veteran named Danial Vo shot and killed himself in the woods near his home on Tuesday. Some time earlier a fellow officer, Thomas Kantzos, had been arrested by the FBI. Both were the…
Because special forces training is hard. Because ground-based gunfire just isn’t sufficiently soaked in testosterone. Because helicopters. Because this is Texas, goddammit. There have always been plenty of reasons for your average (non-G.I.) Joe to shoot assault weapons from a moving aircraft. What North Texas males have lacked is a…
The Parker County district attorney is keeping an eye on the Legislature’s special session. Next month, Jake Evans’ case is scheduled to go to trial. The 17-year-old kid from a gated community in Aledo is accused of methodically gunning down his mother and his little sister then calmly phoning 911…
Sam Lee Morris was still alive when police found him. The disabled 61-year-old was laying unconscious in the road at the intersection of Sunnyvale and Cummings Street in Southeast Oak Cliff just before 10 p.m. Saturday night, having apparently been hit by a car. That’s what officers suspected, at least,…
Exile Machine makes no bones about the fact that its primary reason for existing is to skirt California gun laws. The Irving gun manufacturer’s name is a reference to its CEO, who it says lived and worked in California for most of the past 40 years. The first product the…
Kendric Littles, 33, almost made it home safely last night. Just before 1 a.m., he was headed back to his Oak Cliff home when, less than a block from his house, he came upon a blue 2012 Hyundai parked in the middle of the street. The car was blocking the…
Right now, Eddie Ray Routh is sitting in jail in Erath County, where he has been since February, when he was accused of shooting and killing former sniper Chris Kyle and his friend Chad Littlefield at a Glen Rose gun range. A recent New Yorker profile of Kyle outlined Routh’s…
A week ago Sunday, Charles Lee Johnson, 46, parked his wheelchair next to the Little World Food Store on Malcolm X Boulevard and began asking passing customers for money. A store employee, unable to persuade Johnson to leave, called police, who shooed the 46-year-old away and issued a criminal trespass…
A number of facts surrounding Donny Hinshaw’s May 23 arrest by Cleburne police are firmly established. Minutes before the YouTube clip above, the 30-year-old had gotten in a wreck and driven away. When he’s pulled over, he steps out of his truck and ignores the officer’s command to put his…
By now, you’ve likely heard about Ezekiel Gilbert, the 28-year-old San Antonio man who was acquitted yesterday of murder in the death of Lenora Ivie Frago. In case you’ve somehow missed it: Gilbert met 23-year-old Frago on Craigslist on Christmas Eve 2009. She came over to his house and he…
