A woman hunted a man quite the distance to try and get her phone back. Photo Credit: northparkcenter.com, google.com

In the longest thief foot chase — although I have nothing to put this claim against — in NorthPark history,  a woman chased down a man who had stolen her phone at 5:55 p.m. last Monday while she was dining at La Madeleine.

The thief snatched her $500 iPhone from the table she was sitting at and took off towards Center Park. The victim immediately bolted after him as he weaved through the garden area and ran out the North doors by Kona Grill.

She did not let up as the suspect cut through the parking lot towards Park Lane, but eventually lost sight of this cross-country criminal as he crossed over North Central Expressway.

The map shows the potential path they may have taken and here is my unofficial distance ran by the two: Far.

This event took place a day before NorthPark announced their new curfew for 17-year-olds and younger. Which would have nothing to deter this ruffian who was believed to be in his late-20s or early-30s.

My only thought: Why does no one find a woman chasing a man through the mall suspicious?

A reader presented an idea to People Newspapers about how some may take the safety of leaving your valuables in the supervision of valets for granted.

While there are many valet services available here in Dallas — most of which should be on the up and up — I am looking into how common these types of theft may be.

If you or anyone you know may have experienced a theft or lost items while a car was being held by a valet, please comment below or contact me directly at andrew.plock@peoplenewspapers.com.

The only explanation Dan and I could come up with for the double-thievery of  $50 worth of flash drives, is that the culprit placed the items in his Mercedes after pilfering them from a Mazda.

Then, the universe fought back.

Between 5 and 6 p.m. Oct. 20, a burglar broke into a gray 2010 Mazda at NorthPark Center and stole a $3,000 laptop, a $500 Tory Burch bag, two iPods valued at $400, a $200 black IBM laptop, a $100 Sony phone, an $80 black backpack, a $60 Packard Bell hard drive, five flash drives valued at $50, and a $25 Spanish passport.

And the very next day…

Between 1 and 1:40 p.m., a burglar broke into a black 2011 Mercedes at NorthPark Center and stole a $3,000 laptop, a $500 Tory Burch bag, two iPods valued at $400, and five flash drives valued at $50.

For more zany crimes, pick up a copy of the Oct. 28 edition of Preston Hollow People

Two of the items in this week’s police blotter are probably going to haunt my dreams. Since I’d hate to think of being the only one waking up in a cold sweat, here they are for your reading displeasure.

At 12:40 a.m. on Sunday, a woman in the 10400 block of Barrywood Drive reported being harassed by phone and in-person. In addition to texting and calling the woman more than 200 times, the harasser arrived at her home, knocked on the window, and smashed a light bulb that was illuminating the backyard.

Between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. on Monday, a burglar broke into a home in the 6500 block of Park Lane by cutting the window screen, and stole a $10 pair of women’s panties.

That’s the question I’m attempting to answer on behalf of all Hollow dwellers in this week’s paper. I’m comparing the number of burglaries committed in the distribution area for Preston Hollow People in the three coldest months (December, January, February) to the three hottest months (June, July, August). While conventional wisdom says crime rises along with the temperature, I wonder if that holds true for our little slice of reality.

On face value, the police blotters seem shorter to me during the summer than the winter, but I’ll let the crime statistics do the talking. And you of course, if you’re so inclined to share your opinion on the correlation between weather and thievery in the comments section.

Just .2 miles away from where Dirk lays down his sweet head, a vandal snuck past security at Kenny Troutt’s $13.7 million mansion and smashed his master bathroom window, a stained glass piece worth $8,000.

According to police, Troutt’s security guard was searching the backyard when someone in dark clothes jumped out of the bushes, hopped a fence, and ran across Harrys Lane. No entry was made into the home.

The typical police blotter for this paper consists of a handful of car and home burglaries, a slew of shoplifting at NorthPark Center, and a sprinkling of vandalism. Kid stuff, really. And we like it that way. A boring police blotter=a safe community.

However, this weekend there were three violent robberies in our ‘hood. While that’s not an outlandish number of crimes, it is unusual for our coverage area (which by the way, is defined as Hillcrest Road to Midway Road, and Forest Lane to Mockingbird-ish. There’s a fair bit of gerrymandering going on, but you get the gist).

We don’t cover the area west of Midway, where Google Maps labels “Preston Hollow.”

April 29

Around 4 p.m., three assailants attacked woman as she got out of her car in the 6000 block of Forest Lane, punching and kicking her while stealing $200 in cash and two diamond rings worth $300.

April 30

At 1:30 a.m., two men robbed a Bluffview resident of his keys, cash, camera, and phone at gunpoint in the 4500 block of Cherokee Trail. According to police, the man was accosted as he arrived home in his black 2000 two-door Porsche. The robbers approached him with semiautomatic pistols, demanded he get out of the car, and said “Give me everything you got, or I’ll shoot you.” The man complied, producing Land Rover keys worth $500, $80 cash, a $450 Cannon digital camera, and two iPhones worth $900. One of the robbers then told the man, “Lie down or I’ll shoot you.” Again, the man complied but kept an eye on his assailants. Shortly after this, the other robber told him to go lay down across the street. The man watched as the robbers attempted to pry open the hood of his Porsche, and while they were distracted, he ran away on foot and contacted police in the 5100 block of West Lovers Lane.

At 7:53 a.m., a man knocked on the back door of Natural Grocers in the 11600 block of Preston Road. According to police, the man was standing next to a pile of boxes and the store manager believed he was making a delivery. When the manager opened the door, the man threw the boxes at him, entered the store, and pulled out a gun. The man demanded to be taken to the second floor office “where the money was kept.” However, upon arrival the man did not find any money and demanded to go to the safe room, where they found another employee counting $2,500 in cash. The man took both the employees’ cell phones, cut the main phone line, and had one of the employees dump the cash into a black draw-string bag. He told the employees to stay in the safe room, and fled the store on foot through a fire exit, which set off an alarm. A third employee unaware of the robbery came out because of the alarm, but the robber had already left.

For more coverage of local crime, pick up the May 6 edition of Preston Hollow People.

The Homeowners Association is reporting that a 6-foot black male in his 20’s is driving around Glen Meadow Estates in a gold sedan and casing homes to burglarize. According to the email sent out a few minutes ago, the man knocks on the front door and if no one appears to be home, he attempts to get in from the back. Police have been called and are investigating the situation.

Stay safe out there, neighbors.

The police blotter in this week’s paper is anything but typical. Sure, there is the customary purse snatching at NorthPark Center, a dozen or so burglarized cars and businesses, and a couple home break-ins, but there was also this:

Between 7 p.m. Jan. 7 and 1 p.m. Jan. 8, a vandal used a real estate sign to cause $2,300 worth of damage to the hood, bumper, and window of a yellow 2007 Chevrolet Corvette in the 7300 block of Fieldgate Drive. According to police reports, the victim, a 57-year-old man from New Mexico, “had no idea who would have damaged his vehicle.”

While it’s likely a middle aged New Mexican doesn’t have many enemies in North Dallas, I could venture a guess as to the culprit.

Punk kids.

Perchance the same ones responsible for a rash of rock throwing. The word “rock” is found seven times in this week’s blotter, five of which occur Jan. 7 on Beechwood Lane.

Looks like even criminals are affected by the weak economy. Guns and baseball bats are just too expensive these days.