"‘Unstable’ Hollywood Park owl attacks four people"

A commenter points me to the North Central News for more owl attacks in Hollywood Park. (previous post here)

Hollywood Park Police Lt. J. Quintero said his department has permission from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Department to “neutralize” an owl that has attacked four people, sending one to the hospital.

The four victims were all attacked by an owl while walking late at night or in the early morning, either in the 500 block of Rue de Matta Street or at the Voight Center. An urban biologist says the owl is unstable and may have been raised domestically, then set free.

Beware La Lechuza! Especially when it is "unstable". And don't forget to follow the mayor's advice.

“If you walk late at night or early in the morning,” said Hollywood Park Mayor Richard McIlveen, “wear your hard hat.”

And duck a lot.

"Two Women Found Dead Believed To Be Mother and Daughter"

A strange crime has taken place.

From News 4 WOAI:

Two women, possibly a mother and daugther, were found dead early Wednesday morning.

About 5 a.m., a security guard called police to report he'd found the body of woman inside a white car in the 100 block of Stribling, just south of Downtown. When police arrived, they found a woman who had apparently been beaten to death inside the car.

Police traced the car back to a woman living in 500 block of Senisa, on the Northwest Side. When officers went to the home, they found another woman dead inside.

The police believe the other woman is the mother of the one found in the car. They are treating this as a double murder, and they are looking for two people who "may have valuable information" about the case.

"Man Accused of Posing as a Priest - Again"

In God we trust. All others pay cash.

From WOAI-TV:

Fred Perry remembers the day they walked into his store. A man and a woman looking for a deal on some of Perry's best pieces of furniture.

"He was dressed as a priest with a collar on," Perry said. "The lady kept calling him, 'The father, the father this, the father that.'"

Perry says the man dressed as a priest was George Persyn. He left with a cherrywood desk and other items and the promise he would pay for the furniture within 30 days. After two months and no sign of the money, Perry got worried and tried to track to people down.

"The Archdiocese, a man there told me to call the San Antonio Police Department, that these people were crooks," said Perry.

Perry now believes his customer is the same George Persyn who was the subject of a lengthy Trouble Shooters investigation four years ago.

"I never represented myself as a Roman Catholic Priest," said Persyn, who talked to News 4 WOAI back in 2003.

Notice he said he never posed as a Roman Catholic priest. Keep in mind that Anglicans and Episcopalians have priests, too.

"Strange in 78250: Backwards Driving..."

Have you ever had problems keeping your car going straight while driving in reverse? Well, imagine doing that while being towed by a truck!

Silver Creek 78250 has the story, with pictures.

"Homeless men steal truck last night"

Don't argue with homeless people. If you do, don't get out of your truck to fight them.

From KENS-5:

A man is recovering in the hospital after losing his truck during a scuffle with a group of homeless men late Saturday night.

There was an exchange of words between the man driving a pickup and a group of homeless men on the corner of West Avenue and Interstate 10, according to police.

Then, the driver of the truck got out of his vehicle and started fighting one of those homeless men.

While the two were fighting, the other individuals hopped into the truck and sped away.

The driver got a broken ankle out of the deal. And his truck is missing.

"Clogged manhole causes raw sewage to flood home"

This is too bad (from the North Central News).

“I came in to have coffee,” said Beth Player, whose husband’s parents’ home in the 13400 block of George Road was flooded with sewage on Sept. 7. “My father-in-law was sitting in his den, ankle-deep in it. It was coming up from the floor. The bathtub was like Niagra Falls, it covered the entire house in about 20 minutes.”

Player acted quickly to help her in-laws, 95-year-old David C. Player and his wife Wilma, 97, out of the house. She was able to remove sentimental and valuable items from the home, all the while rushing to beat the seeping mixture of dirty water and sewage. At 8 a.m., Player said she called San Antonio Water System.

And, if it weren't for the vandals and the careless jerks, this probably wouldn't have happened.

Workers found several two-by-fours in a nearby manhole that could have caused the backup. [SAWS spokeswoman Natalie] Tejeda said SAWS believes the debris was from construction activity on NW Military Highway, but said people dump items in manholes that clog lines all over San Antonio.

“We’ve pulled out tree stumps, car doors, engines; it’s amazing what we pull out of manholes,” said SAWS spokesman Greg Flores. “We do have vandalism that affects the buildup, and essentially, we don’t realize we have a problem until it rears its head.”

At least SAWS seems to be performing admirably in this situation. They're doing a lot to help clean up the Players' house, even though the backup seems to be someone else's fault.

Car crashes into house

This time, the car was pushed into the house. By a police car, going fast. And the house caught fire. And the driver ran away.

The Express-News has the story.

The crash occurred before 5 p.m. in the 300 block of Paul Street at the Piedmont Street intersection when the officer, in response to a call of a stabbing on the same street, collided with the driver's side door of a brown Cadillac, [San Antonio Police Department Lt. Scott Bell] said.

When the car hit the house, the front of it caught on fire and in turn ignited the corner of the small frame home, Bell said.

He said the driver of the Cadillac fled the scene, but officers found someone believed to be the driver about an hour later a few blocks away. He was taken into custody, but Bell was unsure if any charges would be filed.

The stabbing call was a false alarm.

"Homeowner Shocked Over Big Water Bill"

The house I live in is just under 2,000 square feet. My water bill is about $50 a month.

So, check out this guy. (from KSAT-12)

Vikas Bhatnager said he nearly collapsed when he opened his water bill of $868.

"I heard water was expensive in San Antonio, but I thought, wow, that's really expensive."

Bhatnager said the bill is the first he's received since moving into his new 3,800-square-foot home with his wife and 6-year-old daughter.

He said the bill was no mistake and BexarMet found no leaks after inspecting his water system.

"It turns out I used 123,000 gallons of water," Bhatnager said. "I don't know how I could have consumed that water."

Hmm. I also wonder how he could have used that much water.

BexarMet said Bhatnager ran his sprinkler system twice a day, seven days a week, which could have used up to 400 gallons per day. [emphases added]

Yeah, that might be how.

I understand Bhatnager has a new home, and you have to water new sod a lot to get it well established. But still, that's a lot of water. He must have a lot of sod.

"Man Slashes Teen With Sword"

Want to get your point across about using drugs? Did you ever think about the point of a sword? This man did (from KSAT-12):

SAN ANTONIO -- A man told officers that he attacked an 18-year-old with a sword in an apartment to try to prevent him from using drugs on Saturday night, police said.

Lydell Galtney, 31, told police that he tried to reason with the teen in the 1200 block of Mulberry Street, but when that didn't work, he slashed him in the throat with a 2-foot long, replica sword.

Officers arrested Galtney at an apartment while the victim was rushed to a hospital.

The 18-year-old man seems to be OK, as the cut was not actually serious, but so far has refused to press charges against his attacker. Maybe he got the point.

Owl attacks

If you're in Hollywood Park, a suburb on the north side of San Antonio, watch out. There seems to be an attack owl on the loose.

From WOAI-TV:

“I thought it was a prank, or something was after me, the invisible man or something, I don't know,” said John Patterson, the first man attacked by the owl.

Now the second man has come forward.

“Then just something...chckck, chckck, chckck,” Ryan Wayment described to News 4 WOAI’s Aubrey Mika.

Ryan Wayment didn't know what had come out of the dark trees...but he was scratched up and bleeding. Then, he got to thinking.

“We sometimes hear 'woo, woo' at night,” said Wayment.

Yeah, that "woo, woo" sound is a dead giveaway.

"NISD Officer Wounds Self"

Odd. I hope this guy gets help.

From KSAT-12:

According to a San Antonio Police Department news release, [Northside Independent School District] Police Officer Patrick Ritchey reported that he was on routine patrol at Lackland City Elementary at 10:45 p.m. Tuesday when he found some fresh graffiti on the wall of the school building.

Ritchey reported that he confronted two people, who attacked the officer and fought over his weapon, police said.

The officer told police that he was shot twice through his bullet-proof vest and the two people got away on foot, police said.

An investigation by the SAPD's Shooting Team revealed that the gunshots were self-inflicted, police said.

No charges against him, yet. But I suspect he will probably get some psychiatric scrutiny.

"Police say body found on North Side is that of hit-and-run driver"

KENS 5 has this sad but strange story.

Police say a body found on the North Side is that of a man who was behind the wheel during a hit-and-run accident over Labor Day weekend.

The body of 34-year-old Raul Cordova was found Sunday. The accident happened on Beacon Avenue, a block from where Cordova was found.

Police say it appears Cordova ran from the accident scene, and tried to jump over a wooden fence. Officers say he somehow got caught in the fence and died.

If he had stayed at the scene, he might have gone to jail, or been deported (the story says his body will be sent back to Mexico), but at least he would have been alive. And, how secluded is this fence that a body can hang on it (or nearby it) for almost a week and no one would notice? According to the video, it was the smell that drew the attention of the family that lived on the lot where Cordova was found.

"Residents at North Side apartment want slimy pools cleaned up"

Blech! (from KENS-5)

The people who live in the Amber Square apartments want to know why their pools have been left in a sad state of disrepair.

The residents say one of the pools has a few inches of stagnant water and lots of trash, and the other is dark green and disgusting — and the pools have been like this for weeks.

"It smells bad. There's mosquitoes all over the place. It's moldy and dark green," a resident said in a phone call to KENS 5.

...

The Lynd Company, which manages the apartments, said they plan to turn one of the pools into a playground for children, and they are working on cleaning up the other pool.

A playground for children? An old pool? Besides skaters, who else wants to play in an old pool? I hope they plan on filling it in, at least.

"Man stabbed during flea market brawl"

For God's sake, don't pay attention to her!

From the Express-News:

Bexar County sheriff's deputies are questioning a 15-year-old girl in the stabbing of a man who reportedly was looking at her while she was with her family at the Poteet Flea Market on Sunday.

Deputy L. Lopez, who declined to give his first name, said the man, 23, looked at the girl "wrong."

A large fight ensued, Lopez said, and it involved the girl, her family, the man, and his group of friends. At one point, a witness told deputies, the teenager was on top of the man, fighting. Seconds later he emerged, stabbed in the cheek.

Them girls are tough down there in Poteet. Make sure you don't look at 'em wrong.

Wait a minute, the deputy that mysteriously declined to give his first name is supposedly from Bexar County, yet Poteet is in neighboring Atascosa County. What gives? Don't they have deputies in Atascosa County?

UPDATE: Mystery solved. Dave from Silver Creek 78250 informs me that the real name of the place is "Flea-Mart", but that people refer to it as the "Poteet Flea Market" because it is off Highway 16 on the way to Poteet. The flea market is, however, still in Bexar County.

Protesting on the ground

So far, there are no toll roads in the San Antonio area, but the Texas Department of Transportation (or TxDOT) wants to change that. As can be expected, there is heated opposition to the idea of toll roads in general and TxDOT in particular. A local ostensibly anti-toll group call The San Antonio Toll Party (which I've discussed before), held a press conference and protest on Tuesday, September 4. There, they called for the resignation of all top personnel at TxDOT. They've got several politicians on their side, but they also have the strange ones, too.


Bahram Mark Sobhani of the Express-News captured one of the protesters in rare form at Tuesday's press conference.







See the full image, read more about the protest, and get good views on both sides of the issue by reading the relevant post at Pat Driscoll's blog, Move It!

"Mother and Teenage Son Busted For Selling Drugs From Home"

If the family that plays together stays together, what happens to the family that sells drugs together?

They get arrested together.

From WOAI-TV:

A mother and her teenage son were arrested Tuesday for selling drugs out of their home.

Police are calling it a family affair after they raided the home on Morales on the West Side. They arrested Debbie Perez and her son, 18-year-old Edward Ybarra.

Perez admitted to being a part of the operation. But investigators said their main target was her son, who is a student at Fox Tech High School.

Incredible. The mom's out on bail, and the son's still in jail.

Chupacabra nationwide!

The story of Phylis Canion's alleged chupacabra has been picked up by the Associated Press.

Canion and some of her neighbors discovered the 40-pound bodies of three of the animals over four days in July outside her ranch in Cuero, 80 miles southeast of San Antonio. Canion said she saved the head of the one she found so she can get to get to the bottom of its ancestry through DNA testing and then mount it for posterity.

That's cool. Imagine being able to show off your trophy collection like this: "Oh, yes, here's the twelve-point white-tail I told you about. And here's the mule deer I got in Utah. And the black bear, and the pronghorn, and the elk, and -- oh, yeah, here's the chupacabra."