The Month in Review: March 2008 - Part 3 of 4

Friday, March 28

(02:00) I heard a series of gunshots that came from the east. I could not tell the exact distance, but I’m certain it was at least a few blocks away. Since it was not in my immediate area, I didn’t call FWPD. Instead, I stepped outside to watch and listen. Shortly afterwards, I heard sirens to the north-east. But they sounded farther away than the gunshots did.

A few minutes later, I started walking to my truck when a patrol car approached from the south. The car slowed as it approached the intersection. I was thinking he might be patrolling because of the shots fired, so I waved to get his attention. I was just going to let him know that I had been outside for the last ten minutes and the area had been totally clear. Then, I looked to my left and saw an approaching vehicle traveling the wrong direction. This car blew past the patrol car and floored it, heading south on Warsaw Street. The patrol car u-turned and pursued. I went in and immediately turned on the scanner, and they had already crossed Rudisill. A minute later, the car had crashed into the guard rail that blocks the southern end of Warsaw Street.

I drove to the area and asked the first officer I encountered if I could proceed to the scene to take some photos. He asked that I not do so because the suspect had fled on foot and they were searching the area for him. I went back home and heard the scanner report that the car had been stolen. I do not know if they caught the suspect. I have included a satellite map of the area and several photographs which were taken the following day.


The photo below shows how hard the car impacted the rail. The steel post was pulled from the ground and the rail moved forward about five or six feet.

The second photo (below) shows that the other end of the rail moved forward at least eight feet. If you look carefully, you will see the small tree that I planted in the post hole to show the distance. It looks like he actually opened up the way so that a vehicle can easily travel through that grass strip to access Decatur Road. That means I have a direct path from my house to Scott’s Supermarket now, thanks to Mr. Crackhead.

Evidently, this guy was not the first to attempt to bulldoze this guardrail, as there is evidence (below) of other cars having been there before.

Actually, it looks like some of those guys decided to stay around and lived there for a while! (photo below)

COST ANALYSIS: The Maplecrest Road extension project is estimated to cost $55 million for 1.5 miles. That figures to Almost $7,000 per foot. It looks like this guy moved the rail forward about 8 feet. And we could just cut open the tires that are being dumped here and lay them down as traction strips on the grass leading to Decatur Road. That’s probably a total distance of over a hundred and fifty feet. Applying the “Maplecrest standard,” this road extension project would cost over a million dollars! And yet, these guys are doing the work while juiced up on a twenty dollar rock. It just goes to show that if you have enough crack-heads and enough stolen vehicles, they will get the job done! Perhaps we should be subsidizing their habits like some of the European countries do.