Patterico's Pontifications

12/3/2008

Follow That Cart

Filed under: Crime — DRJ @ 5:32 pm



[Guest post by DRJ]

I almost always read Texas news first so that means I often end up writing Texas-based posts. There were several interesting stories today including a Dallas judge’s ruling that raises doubts about the validity of state-wide red light tickets, and a request by Texas prison officials that they need $66M in additional funds to get rid of unauthorized cell phones and other contraband in state prisons including on death row. (Cell phones really are everywhere, aren’t they?)

But these stories don’t hold a candle to yesterday’s low speed chase in Austin:

At around 9:24 a.m., a woman reported that someone was breaking into her house, Sergeant Jeff Slater said. Officers responded to the house in the 3500 block of Pecan Springs Road. The homeowner emerged from the house, but the suspect, who Slater said asked the homeowner to tie up his children with a phone cord, escaped from the house by running out of the back door.

Slater said police chased the suspect through a wooded area onto the Morris Williams Golf Course near Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Springdale Road. When the suspect got on a golf cart, “we got on a golf cart, too, then he ran out of golf course,” Slater said. Police continued to chase the suspect on foot until he was arrested.”

This incident may be more than a home invasion. For one thing, it sounds like the male homeowner left his children in the house with the intruder. Reportedly the homeowner was also arrested in connection with a stolen pickup found in the garage.

I’d still like to see video of the golf cart chase on COPS. It would be especially interesting to see aerial views from a helicopter.

— DRJ

7 Responses to “Follow That Cart”

  1. When the suspect got on a golf cart, “we got on a golf cart, too, then he ran out of golf course,” Slater said.

    “When the suspect stopped for a hotdog and beer at the turn, we stopped for a hotdog and beer at the turn too.”

    JVW (bff0a4)

  2. DRJ – I’d still like to see video of the golf cart chase. . .

    Here it is.

    Apogee (366e8b)

  3. How funny. That’s just the way I visualized it — except for the ending, of course. The old folks on the scooters are priceless.

    DRJ (a50047)

  4. Didn’t this also happen in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City?

    You could even switch to ‘police helicopter view’

    Juan (4cdfb7)

  5. I’m waiting for the Segway version.

    Evil Pundit (843b74)

  6. Time for some lib to praise him for using a no-emission getaway vehicle.

    Icy Texan (b7d162)

  7. The red light camera thing interests me, because it just seems inherently wrong for government to outsource law enforcement, and to do so in such a way as to prevent you from being able to confront your accuser. I understand that they make this a civil offense rather than a criminal one, but it’s still a law enforcement activity, so I find that distinction meaningless in spirit, if not in the letter of the law.

    The red light camera that was put in place near where I used to work in Plano was particularly egregious. At the same time they put in the camera, they lowered the yellow light timer by about half a second, to where it was dangerously short, under 3 seconds. I could see the intersection out my window, and I saw so many rear-end wrecks there in the year I was at that office that I’m shocked the city hasn’t been sued.

    Skip (ba6438)


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