The Victim: Teddie Cundiff
The Crime: Theft
Date: Saturday, July 21
Time: Between 8:15 p.m. and 7 a.m.
Location: 1500 block of Montreal

They broke the lock twice in a row.

Teddie Cundiff has been holding on to her deceased husband’s power tools. While nothing of too much value, for some reason she just hasn’t gotten rid of them. He was woodworker, and after he retired from sales, the couple traveled to various arts and crafts fairs selling hat racks, planters and other items he had made by hand.

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“We traveled all over the state,” Cundiff says.

Now those tools are gone. Someone broke into her shed by cutting a lock and then broke in again the next day by cutting another lock. The thief made off with about $500 worth of Cundiff’s husband’s power tools.

Cundiff’s neighbor also reported someone entering his backyard the same night and stealing a container of detergent, which was visible on the ground leading to the alley of her own Hampton Hills home, Cundiff says.

“I wasn’t hurt,” she says of the break-in. “But I’ve been violated.”

She says police have continued to investigate the crime and hopes a thief so brazen will be caught.

Dallas Police Lt. Gil Garza of the Southwest Patrol Division says it’s rare that a thief will return to the scene of a crime two nights in a row. Beyond using a sturdy lock, providing some added light to the shed area might be an added security measure for residents concerned with this type of crime.

“She might consider installing lights or motion sensor lights pointing toward her shed or attached to her shed. Burglars work at night or when they know someone is not home because they don’t want to be seen. The lights can deter some crimes.”

 

| crime numbers |

6:05 a.m.

Time on Aug. 5 when a woman hid in her bedroom as an unknown suspect kicked in the door of her apartment in the 3000 block of North Hampton; he then fled the location, and nothing was stolen

 

 08.02

Date when a man threatened a woman and her dog at gunpoint while they were sitting in front of the North Oak Cliff library; when the woman did not respond to his romantic advances, he brandished the weapon and said, “I’ll shoot your dog!”; she called the police, and he fled the scene

 $409

Estimated value of the power tools stolen from Oak Cliff United Methodist Church Aug. 6 in the 500 block of East Jefferson

 

Source Dallas Police Department