Wayne, and others. This type of crime is occurring with frequency
especially in public parks. I have investigated several of them in recent
years. In all of the cases that I have investigated something of value or
perceived value was left out in the open in the vehicle. It only takes the
violators a very short time to smash out the window(s) grab the perceived
valuable and leave the area. We had a very big problem with this about a
year ago with an organized group from Pennsylvania who was targeting vehicle
in the McKeldin , Freedom Park , Liberty Reservoir and Sykesville areas. I
can't stress enough concealing your valuable in the trunk or other locked
area of your vehicle and not leaving anything which might look like it is of
value in plain sight. This is an unfortunate trend and many times it is not
just cell phones and small items which are stolen often times they get
purses with your ID, credit cards etc. and then proceed to go on shopping
sprees. These are difficult to investigate and actually identify suspects
in order to file charges and hold them accountable. Be alert about your
surroundings.
Mike Lathroum
_____
From: <mdbirding...> [mailto:<mdbirding...>] On
Behalf Of Wayne Baumgartner
Sent: Tuesday, April 16, 2013 12:12 PM
To: <mdbirding...>
Subject: [MDBirding] Car vandalism incident against birder at Kenilworth
Park, DC
Yesterday evening I was birding at Kenilworth Park in DC and had my car
broken into and several windows shattered.
I arrived at the park about 6:45pm and passed six older teenagers walking
into the park. I thought nothing of it and dorve into the park and parked
my car along the road halfway between the two parking lots. I walked down
to the main Kenilworth Marsh, looking for Blue-winged Teal and perhaps Sora
(one can always hope). After walking along the field edges and observing at
the marsh for about 30 minutes, I started walking back toward my car. When
my head crested the small hill leading from the marsh, I saw from about 500
yards away that the doors of my car were hanging open, and the teenagers
were nearby rifling through the contents of my work bag taken from the
locked car.
I called 911, and the DC police arrived about 2 minutes later. The teens
had sauntered off to the back (south) part of the park beyond the jersey
barriers, and the two DC police officers chased them for some time, but did
not catch them. A Park Police officer arrived a minute later (Kennilworth
Park is not currently in the jurisdiction of the DC Police, but rather the
US Park Police; the irony of this is that DC police are often seen in the
park, but rarely Park Police).
My car was severely damaged. A large stone was used to attempt to break all
six car windows, succeeding in shattering two and ruining all of them, as
well as leaving dents all around from stone richochets. There was nothing
much of value in the car except the bag, from which they stole a digital
camera and a valuable antique pen. (I guess the Sibley Guide to Birds of
Eastern North America doesn't rate highly on the stolen goods market).
By the look of the damage to all windows, I would say this was an act of
vandalism in addition to an attempt to steal from a car. It was also
particularly brazen, given that they were two cars in sight with people
around them parked in the first and second parking lots. The incident
happened about 7:10pm in full daylight, in sight of other people in the
park. I also managed to get a couple of faraway photographs of the
perpetrators, which I attach below.
I have been to Kenilworth park hundreds of times in the past three years,
and have never run into anything like this before. There are often cars
that are parked there with people in them that look sketchy, and it is easy
to avoid the park at these times and come back another time, or to bird in a
different part of the park. I will now have to re-evaluate my approach--I
don't like to be inherently suspicious of any group of teenagers I see
walking through a park, but perhaps I should be more so from now on. In
retrospect, they were an unusual looking and acting group that should have
set off more precaution on my part, but I was too busy anticipating Teal and
Sora and Yellowlegs to give them proper attention.
Be careful out there,
-Wayne Baumgartner
Washington, DC
PS- here is a link to the pictures I took of the incident under sub-optimal
conditions:
https://picasaweb.google.com/whbaumga/KenilworthParkVandalism?authkey=Gv1sRg
CN27ya3B-sSPywE#
<https://picasaweb.google.com/whbaumga/KenilworthParkVandalism?authkey=Gv1sR
gCN27ya3B-sSPywE>
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