The Briefing Room
State Chapters => Texas => Topic started by: Elderberry on December 06, 2019, 02:57:37 am
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Houston Chronicle by Gabrielle Banks Dec. 5, 2019
From ghost routes to empty bags, how Houston police foil robbers in armored car heist capital of U.S
In the two weeks leading up to a thwarted armored truck heist outside a Walgreens in November, a team of Houston police officers was tracking a crew of men who were apparently amassing stolen cars and casing the entrances to a supermarket, a drug store and a meat market. These were all places where armored trucks carrying cash made regular drop-offs.
When unmarked police units and camera surveillance detected the robbery crew was poised to strike, Sgt. David Helms employed a tried and true strategy to foil the plan. From an unmarked car and again from his office far from the scene, he contacted the armored trucks making deliveries and told them to ditch the drop-offs, according to his testimony at a hearing for two men arrested in the incident.
“I am personally disrupting routes, calling routes off,†explained Helms, an HPD officer assigned to the FBI Violent Crime Task Force who specializes in robbery.
He called these scenarios where no cash is dropped off “ghost routes.†The aim is to protect the couriers and, of course, to prevent crime.
More: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Police-and-armored-truck-companies-use-cat-and-14884415.php (https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Police-and-armored-truck-companies-use-cat-and-14884415.php)
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Any howlings from the ACLU?