Drizzt
February 24, 2003, 12:11 AM
N. Side neighbors band together in chasing burglar
By Jesse Bogan
Express-News Staff Writer
Web Posted : 02/21/2003 10:38 AM
A North Side thief didn't count on facing the ire of angry homeowners who had finally had enough.
Just after the Rev. Jack Gentry and his wife pulled up to their home in the 19700 block of Wittenburg Drive last weekend, they saw a man with a black bag making his way through a back window of the house.
“Here he is with his butt stuck out my window,” Gentry said. “He was crawling in.”
Gentry immediately reprimanded the burglar like a sixth-grade schoolteacher while his wife called 911.
“Are you crazy?” Gentry said he shouted at the man. “We know you have been breaking into our house, and we've had enough of it.”
The same man had come by two weeks before, first knocking, then beating on the front door, Gentry said. When he asked him what he wanted, the man told Gentry he was a salesman looking for the Olivers. Then the man came back a few hours later.
Gentry bought a handgun after the incidents. He attended a community police training class called Cellular On Patrol, or COP, a course that some 7,000 San Antonians have taken since 1992, including some of Gentry's neighbors.
“I decided it wasn't for me,” Gentry said. “I didn't hear anything they were saying. For me it was important that we get something done now.”
Sunday, he had his opportunity.
Just as Gentry told the burglar that he didn't want any trouble, the man jumped the fence.
“I breathed a breath of relief,” Gentry said. “Then I hear my wife going at it with him. I think, ‘Oh God. Now I have to fight this guy.’”
Gentry's wife attempted to tackle the burglar, then he fled down the street on foot, according to the police report.
Two women who also live on the block joined in the foot chase while Gentry followed the burglar in his car.
Turning around abruptly, the burglar ran right into Gentry's vehicle and then got back up and ran again, witnesses told police.
After the burglar ran into a wooded area near Camp Bullis Road and Interstate 10, police apprehended a man.
Witnesses told police that the burglar tried to get into a blue car that was parked nearby, but the driver sped away. A neighbor trailed the car for a short while but didn't get a license plate number.
James Joseph Oliver Jr., 33, of 421 Bluebonnet St. was charged with burglary of a habitation with intent of theft in the case. He was on parole for a burglary conviction.
Oliver was in Bexar County Jail late Thursday without bond.
While Gentry was pleased with his response to the burglary, police strongly recommended against following his lead, noting that burglars can be armed.
“We teach specifically, they (residents) are only to observe and report,” San Antonio Police Officer Ron Atkinson, coordinator of COP for the Prue Road service area, said of people who want to police their neighborhoods. “We don't want them to be in any part of the action.”
http://news.mysanantonio.com/story.cfm?xla=saen&xlb=180&xlc=953200
Hey, in TX, some of those Revs are just as likely to be packing as not...
By Jesse Bogan
Express-News Staff Writer
Web Posted : 02/21/2003 10:38 AM
A North Side thief didn't count on facing the ire of angry homeowners who had finally had enough.
Just after the Rev. Jack Gentry and his wife pulled up to their home in the 19700 block of Wittenburg Drive last weekend, they saw a man with a black bag making his way through a back window of the house.
“Here he is with his butt stuck out my window,” Gentry said. “He was crawling in.”
Gentry immediately reprimanded the burglar like a sixth-grade schoolteacher while his wife called 911.
“Are you crazy?” Gentry said he shouted at the man. “We know you have been breaking into our house, and we've had enough of it.”
The same man had come by two weeks before, first knocking, then beating on the front door, Gentry said. When he asked him what he wanted, the man told Gentry he was a salesman looking for the Olivers. Then the man came back a few hours later.
Gentry bought a handgun after the incidents. He attended a community police training class called Cellular On Patrol, or COP, a course that some 7,000 San Antonians have taken since 1992, including some of Gentry's neighbors.
“I decided it wasn't for me,” Gentry said. “I didn't hear anything they were saying. For me it was important that we get something done now.”
Sunday, he had his opportunity.
Just as Gentry told the burglar that he didn't want any trouble, the man jumped the fence.
“I breathed a breath of relief,” Gentry said. “Then I hear my wife going at it with him. I think, ‘Oh God. Now I have to fight this guy.’”
Gentry's wife attempted to tackle the burglar, then he fled down the street on foot, according to the police report.
Two women who also live on the block joined in the foot chase while Gentry followed the burglar in his car.
Turning around abruptly, the burglar ran right into Gentry's vehicle and then got back up and ran again, witnesses told police.
After the burglar ran into a wooded area near Camp Bullis Road and Interstate 10, police apprehended a man.
Witnesses told police that the burglar tried to get into a blue car that was parked nearby, but the driver sped away. A neighbor trailed the car for a short while but didn't get a license plate number.
James Joseph Oliver Jr., 33, of 421 Bluebonnet St. was charged with burglary of a habitation with intent of theft in the case. He was on parole for a burglary conviction.
Oliver was in Bexar County Jail late Thursday without bond.
While Gentry was pleased with his response to the burglary, police strongly recommended against following his lead, noting that burglars can be armed.
“We teach specifically, they (residents) are only to observe and report,” San Antonio Police Officer Ron Atkinson, coordinator of COP for the Prue Road service area, said of people who want to police their neighborhoods. “We don't want them to be in any part of the action.”
http://news.mysanantonio.com/story.cfm?xla=saen&xlb=180&xlc=953200
Hey, in TX, some of those Revs are just as likely to be packing as not...