True crime: Theft of his son's bicycle

He threw the thief to the ground.

The Victim: Jeffrey Hargrave
The Crime: Theft
Date: Friday, Jan. 6
Time: 8:30 p.m.
Location: 7300 block of Bennington

Jeffrey Hargrave had been at church for a special event that Friday evening. It was dark when he and his wife returned, and as they pulled into the driveway, Hargrave noticed something just didn’t seem right in front of his University Terrace home. A shadow seemed to be moving between the car and the fence. Hargrave told his wife to stop the car, and he jumped out.

Still dressed in his tweed jacket, bowtie and dress shoes, Hargrave saw a man on the bicycle his son had just received for Christmas. Hargrave told the man to get off the bike, but he kept trying to pedal away. The homeowner then leaped into action, grabbing the thief by a backpack he was wearing and tossing him to the ground. The thief then scampered over the fence and was gone.

“I don’t know how smart I was because the whole time I was doing it, I was thinking, ‘I hope this guy’s not armed,’ ” he says. “But maybe this will discourage him from jacking with us again.”

Dallas Police Sgt. Keitric Jones of the Northeast Patrol Division says the department does not encourage citizens to confront any suspect despite the positive outcome in this case.

“We don’t want a citizen to lose their life over property. Citizens are encouraged to call 911 and give a description of the suspect,” he says. “As a secondary note, it is not up to the Dallas Police Department to decide what actions someone is capable or not capable of taking to protect their property or their life if the police are not there at the time of the crime.”

The suspect was not located on this offense, Jones says, but Hargrave was very pleased with the police response time to the crime.

Crime Numbers

3

Number of people stabbed to death inside an East Dallas home across the street from Bryan Adams High School; William Palmer murdered his estranged wife and her parents at around 6 a.m. Jan. 26.

$2,500

Amount of damage done to a covert police car after a man intentionally slammed into it; he told police that he mistook the vehicle for another one that belonged to a man who robbed him when he tried to sell him weed.