News and notes from Reston (tm).

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

This Fortnight in Crime: Suspicious Mail, the Usual Creeps, and a Not-So-Quick-Change Robber

Batman Shakespeare Bust Life-Size Replica.jpegIt's been a while since we've caught up on the criminal doings of Reston's shadowy underworld, or whatever, so let's flip the switch located in the bust of Bob Simon's head in Stately Restonian Manor and head down to the Batcave (actually our musty basement) to see what's been doing:

First, the series of suspicious white powder-bearing letters that inundated Washington, D.C., schools last week found their way to Reston. One was found yesterday at the U.S. Geological Survey headquarters on Sunrise Valley Drive.

Fairfax County officials say there was an envelope found with white powder on the outside. Fairfax County Police and Fire were called to the scene, and they report to 9NEWS NOW the white powder was not believed to be hazardous.

FBI spokeswoman Lindsey Godwin tells 9NEWS NOW the National Capitol response squad is also responding to this incident, but that their preliminary information is that this incident is believed to be 'unrelated' to the suspicious packages containing white powder that were delivered to a number of DC school locations last week.
Our theory? An overenthusiastic geologist found some really chalky limestone and wanted to send it in.

Returning to the usual creepy stuff we're more accustomed to, a Reston woman woke up with a burglar next to her on the morning of May 1.
A man burglarized a home in the 2000 block of Royal Fern Court on Sunday, May 1. Around 5:50 a.m., a 49-year-old woman awoke to the suspect lying in bed next to her. She screamed and the suspect fled. An investigation determined the suspect entered through an unlocked door. The victim was not injured.
Two men robbed another man out on a late-night stroll on a path near Lake Anne.
Two men robbed a 25-year-old man while walking on a path in the area of Moorings Drive and North Shore Drive around 11:30 p.m. on Sunday, April 24. The victim declined treatment for his injuries.
A Reston man lost his life after a fatal crash on the Fairfax County Parkway on April 24.
Around 1:50 a.m. police were called to the Fairfax County Parkway near West Ox Road for a reported crash. Officers located a 1988 Oldsmobile Bravada in the backyard of a home in the 13100 block of Lou Alice Way. An investigation determined the vehicle was traveling north on the Fairfax County Parkway, just past the intersection of West Ox Road, when the driver lost control of the vehicle. The Bravada went off the left side of the road and rotated counter-clockwise. It traveled across the grass median and the southbound lanes of the Parkway then began to roll as it reached the shoulder of the road. It continued up the embankment, took out some trees and crashed through a wooden fence. The Bravada came to rest on its roof in the backyard of the home. The driver, Arturo Cruz Zaldivar, 22, of Cocquina Drive in Reston, was pronounced dead at the scene. A 20-year-old male passenger was treated for minor injuries. Zaldivar was not wearing a seatbelt; the passenger was. This crash investigation is ongoing. Speed and alcohol appear to be factors.
Two businesses -- one at North Point, the other at Fox Mill -- were robbed at gunpoint on April 18.
A male entered the Game Stop store at 1468 North Point Village Drive and robbed a 21-year-old woman working behind the counter around 1:30 p.m. on Monday, April 18. The suspect was armed with a gun and fled with an undisclosed amount of cash. He was described as white, about 5 feet 9 inches tall, between 16 and 25 years old, about 160 pounds, wearing a black mask, black shirt and black shorts with a yellow stripe. He had short, brown hair. The victim was not injured.

A teenaged boy entered the Radio Shack at 2539 John Milton Drive and attempted to rob two employees working inside around 4:26 p.m. on Monday, April 18. The suspect pointed a gun at the victims but fled without taking anything. He was described as white, about 16 years old, between 5 feet 9 inches and 5 feet 10 inches tall and 110 to 120 pounds. He was wearing a black hoodie, blue pants with yellow stripes and black skateboarding shoes with white socks; his face was covered with a mask but the suspect had short, dirty blonde hair.
Since the suspect was described as wearing black shorts with a yellow stripe in one robbery and blue pants with a yellow stripe in the other, there's no way they could be related. Either that, or there's someone out there with a more extensive wardrobe of striped pants than a middle school PE teacher. He really should have picked a more inconspicuous outfit.

Finally, two kittens were stolen from a home on North Shore Drive and an energy drink was stolen from business in the 2300 block of Soapstone Drive. There are no words.

9 comments:

  1. Were businesses robbed at gunpoint? Or were merchants robbed at gunpoint?

    A man "lost his life"? After a fatal crash? Does someone expect to find his life somewhere?

    I don't suppose a man would have misplaced his life were the crash nonfatal.

    A man was killed (or a man died) in/during a crash...

    Yes, there are words.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous sounds like every frustrated, pedantic copy editor who's ever worked at a small-town paper.

    And people wonder why the newspaper industry is dying.

    ReplyDelete
  3. As once again, The Gulag dominates the news.

    Yes, Reston, it IS all about us.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hey, everyone need's an editor

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  5. Need's one we do!

    Oh and Bob Woodward -- you are so 20th century. For God's sake -- move on to something contemporary. (and, no, we do not mean the contemporary place called Lake Anne). You've so milked that Nixonian cow dry!

    Clearly your mother (or were those the Fairfax County schools?) never taught you about manners (and Miss Manners is a colleague of yours at the WaPo!) and how your attacks on others speak volumes about you and the pathetic state of reading about things printed on dead trees sometimes quaintly called "journalism."

    Far more people alive today know nothing, and care even less, of your has-been reporting than do, so get a new soap box and milk that one for millions too.

    Let's focus on the matters at hand and leave the dead crooks to rest in peace.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Um, no one tell anon @8:11 that Bob Woodward probably doesn't visit this blog. Also, to the pedantic editor who kicked off this thread: I'd hardly call a pimply-faced, sullen sales clerk at Gamestop a "merchant."

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  7. Oh goodie... the Anonymous option is back!

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  8. "Far more people alive today know nothing..."

    As opposed to "Far more people DEAD today know nothing..."?

    ReplyDelete
  9. "Hey, everyone need's an editor"

    Especially an editor who hates misused apostrophes!

    ReplyDelete

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