Southwest Houston: My 89 y/o grandmother was just robbed.

[Halo is for Kids]

I am pissed:

I will update with identifying info on the perps as it becomes available.

My grandmother was going into a hair salon and a "large black woman" tackled/pushed her to the ground and stole her purse. The perp jumped into a waiting red SUV and rode off with the driver. My grandmother is a little bruised but she is ok.

The security cameras from the bank caught the SUV on film and the Bellaire Police are handling the investigation. The thieves have used her credit cards and one check already but she has called the cards in as stolen. The idiots used one of the cards at a hair salon

The accounts are closed, the locks are being changed, and the credit bureaus have a fraud alert applied. She has friends at the house for now.

Am I missing anything, should she do anything?

I am up here in IA so I've advised her to take the valuables from the house and stay with family, I advised her that if they come to the door while she is still home she needs call the cops immediately and tell the perps that the PD knows who they are. She is armed but I think she will finally move to a safer part of town after this.

Am I missing anything, should she do anything else?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Leeroy697]

I think you guys have done the right things up to this point. I would be a little nervous as you said that they might come around her home. Just be alert till they catch these people. Im glad shes ok!!

 

[Quoheleth]

If the ol' grey mare ain't what she used to be, that goes double for SW Houston. I'm far NE metro area, and all we hear on the Houston nightly news is SW Houston this and SW Houston that.

I'm sorry to hear about your grandmother - truly. I hope & pray she recovers fully, both mentally & physically. Good advice, telling her to pack up for a while. Any chance she can move, permanantly? I mean, SW Houston is not exactly old town Prohibition Chicago, but it's taken a drastic turn since Katrina.

Best wishes to you & your family...

Q

 

[springmom]

I am so sorry to hear it. At least she is not seriously injured.

Does she have friends or church members who can stay with her, perhaps? Certainly she can ask the constables and Bellaire PD to do frequent patrols, but somebody living there would be better.

Does she have a dog? Would she be willing to get one? Even a little yapper can be a good deterrent...she doesn't need a German Shepherd Dog (unless of course she'd LIKE a GSD....)

And the phone number of the next door neighbors? A cell phone? Good lighting around her place? You can't do much about all that in Iowa, but maybe some friends or church members could help with this too.


Springmom

 

[Halo is for Kids]

I have a few updates...

No more on the description as of yet.

In the hour or two it took my grandmother to get home the S**tbags charged up the Am Ex and Discover to the point the companies were calling to confirm the charges with my GM. Hopefully she won't have to pay for any of it.

As for the attack, it was around noon in a shopping center near Bissonnet and Chimney Rock. I think the zip code is 77401.

 

[KenRocks]

Wow...right near where I live.

Though disgusted, I can't say I'm too surprised.

At least she's unhurt...money is money, but life is precious.

 

[dodging230grainers]

Scary...

I live in Bellaire in a street right off of chimney rock. Bisonnet is a stone's throw away. SW Houston is not as safe as it used to be, but the Bellaire PD patrols keep Bellaire safer than nearby meyerland...

Just curious, whereabouts do you live Ken?

 

[boredelmo]

I've always hated Houston.

A move to Sugarland is def not a bad idea. It was voted 3rd best place to live by cnn. And its only about 10 minutes away.

Hope all goes well, most banks i can think of are pretty understanding about fraudulent charges.

 

[2RCO]

Halo as far as Visa goes odds are she'll be free and clear as long as the police report is filed and they'll want a copy. She'll have to fill out some dispute forms and get them notarized and send em in. If I was her I would check my own credit bureau in a month or two anyways. Some companies don't pay attention to Hawk Alerts on Credit Bureaus. The crappy thing is the police probably won't do too much about it unless the$ amount is several K as far as the actual theft goes. Since it sounds like their may be a case for assault they will hopefully give it decent attention.

After putting in my $.02 this thread will probably end soon unless it becomes gun related.

Would have been nice if your GM would have had a snubby and been able to thwart the attack.

 

[Rexster]

That is the ragged edge of Bellaire, for sure, the bad part of one of the safest cities in the USA, because it is hard against the "Gulfton Ghetto" part of Houston. It is common strategy for crooks to do this type of crime right by the border of a city, then drive across the jurisdiction line to enhance their getaway. If Bellaire PD is handling this, that is good, as they are not burdened with the huge backlogs HPD detectives have. I am just an unverified name on the internet, so you should not trust me with private information, but I am in the area, and if there is anything I can do, please contact me through THR. I absolutely loathe thugs who pick on elderly folks.

 

[Rexster]

Next time your grandmother wants to get her hair done, give me the salon's address, time, and date, and that parking lot WILL be as safe as one guy can make it. Any day except Monday, with afternoons being the best. I would also like a description of the suspects and their vehicle.

 

[Houston Tom]

sorry to hear about your grandmother.


+1 on contacting all thre credit bureaus and putting a possible identy theft code on her credit that way they can't use her id to open other lines fo credit.
If some one can't stay with her then she should stay with some one else for a while.

She is in my thoughts and prayers

 

[springmom]

I know she's 89, but....

Does she have the strength to heft, say, a .22 revolver, or a Walther P-22? I'm thinking for home defense; if she's willing and able, though, even at that age she might be able to handle a little .32 for CHL.

Obviously she's still able to be "out and about"....it's worth discussing with her whether she'd like to get something for SD and/or HD.

Springmom

 

[gregthehand]

You could see about moving her to Meadows Place. It's on that side of Houston. I went to the police academy with a guy who works there. Aparrently their crime rate is so low the FBI is doing a study to figure out why. I could have told them though without them doing a study! They have something like 25-30 sworn full-time officer and the city is 2.2 square miles large. I've even been told they make more arrests then there is crime because of warrant arrests from all the traffic they run. Should I ever get back that way and need to buy a house it's the first place I'll consider!

 

[Halo is for Kids]

First off thanks for all of the support.

I still don't have any info about the perps, the type of robbery is pretty effective in that it is over with so fast it was hard to have any info. If you didn't see it coming you wouldn't know what happened until it was over (am I being attacked or did some dumba** just run into me?).

Coincidentally, I don't think a gun would have been any use to her in that situation because by the time you know what's happened it's over and they're gone. It's alot easier to knock an old woman down and take her purse when she drops it than to confront her with "stick'em up" or "gimmie your purse" or any other classic hey I'm gonna rob you kinda line.
If I had been 10 feet from her and saw it happen it would be hard to know the woman was taking the purse until she was headed for the car. She could claim "Oh I was just picking it up for her, I didn't mean to knock her over." (burden of proof is on the state and all that) Not really allot of time to access shoot vs. no shoot much less even draw the piece. My GM was probably not examining the area for threats but even if she was there are too many people out there who can pose a threat to an 89 y/o woman. I've been thinking about this quite a bit.:banghead: Bitter Sarcasm{Crime is easy huh? You just have to let go of the idea your doing something horrible and selfish, strange as none of our celebrities seem horrible or selfish.}Bitter Sarcasm

Also there is a new law in Texas that you can have your credit frozen without a police report now. You used to have to be a victim of a crime to freeze your credit but now you can do it no prob. The Fraud alert only tells companies that there is a chance of fraud on the credit in question and leaves it to the issuer's discretion to allow a new account to be opened. Big surprise here: some credit companies don't care to check and make sure the applicant is who they say they are. The freeze is just that, no new activity is allowed. Great for Seniors who don’t need new cards.

 

[KenRocks]

Dodging230grainers:

I used to stay up in the Forum Park area (in between 59 and the belt on Bissonnett). Since I've been out of school, I moved closer to Mission Bend (where I grew up), so now I'm fairly close to Bellaire and Synott.

 

[dodging230grainers]

Not rly sure where Synott is, but it sounds a little further west of me. (City of Bellaire).

The only relatively safe places in Houston nowadays are the Memorial area, Sugarland, and parts of Katy. (I.E. only far west Houston areas)

To the OP, some parts of Houston aren't safe for an elderly, unarmed person...I'd suggest your grandma get a snub .38 and load it with weak target loads(less recoil), which will still be better than any .32 or .22.

 

[KenRocks]

Yup...it is. I'm an Alief kid, and try to not to stray too far away.

And I agree...alot of places arent quite as safe as they used to be. I love Houston, but I love it a great deal more armed

 

[Halo is for Kids]

Update:

-My GM's cell phone was in the purse and all of the numbers called were referred to the detective on the case.

-The Suspect is in custody and will be questioned by the detective today!

-My GM's purse was found in the hotel room where the suspects were staying. (I don't know if they used the credit card for the hotel but I would not be surprised.)

-The police found my GM's checkbook in a dumpster behind the Hotel.

My thanks are due to the Bellaire Police Department.

 

[obxned]

Sorry for your trouble. I hope she is NOT a member of thee AARP - they want us old folks to be easy prey.

 

[foghornl]

When I worked in the Houston area (21-27 years back) Bellaire, South Side Place, and surrounding areas were pretty good. Alief had the best public schools at that time, IIRC.

Sounds like areas around Bellaire, SSP, etc aren't so good now...but then, neither is the area where I grew up around Memphis, TN.

Hope your grandmother is doing well.

 

[Rexster]

Bellaire, SSP, West U, and the parts of Houston to the east, and south of those small cities are quite nice. The Link Valley neighborhood got really bad, then improved a bit. Meyerland went downhill, but then got much better. The area to the west of Bellaire, west of Chimney Rock Road, has become a third world country, though piece by piece, it is being reclaimed by good people. Bellaire PD is nationally noted for a VERY good response time to emergency calls; in one recent study, Bellaire PD was number one. In the urban sprawl that is the Houston area, one neighborhood or small city can be very safe, while a nearby area can be very bad. The people that keep moving farther out are not really escaping crime; it follows them. Bad guys do know how to catch a bus, steal a car, or borrow mama's car.

 

[dodging230grainers]

I live in Bellaire, and I believe the average response time from the time the 911 call goes out is 45 seconds, which is insanely fast....

However, the 12 gauge can be had in 5 seconds.

 

[Halo is for Kids]

Final update:

My mother and my grandmother met with the detective today, it was interesting to hear the details:

-The suspect driver is in custody and charged with Aggravated Robbery because the victim (my GM) is over 65.
-The Suspect who committed the actual assault will be picked up by the end of the week and charged with Aggravated Robbery as well.
-The first stop they made after the theft was a beauty supply store where they bought hair extensions and makeup. The clerk/owner found them suspicious and requested ID. When no ID could be given the clerk wrote down their license plate #. The vehicle had been stolen the day before the robbery.

-The suspects are cross dressing prostitutes. That’s right, men in women’s clothes who take money for sex.
-The suspect that was in custody wanted to know if he would be able to keep the purse as it matched so many of his outfits.

 

[Rexster]

Texas justice at work. Being prostitutes, they probably have priors, which should mean decently long sentences, I hope.