On Tuesday, September 23, 2014, I had dinner in the Montrose/Museum area of Houston with friends. After a great meal, we parted company and I walked to my car. I then discovered that my Acura MDX had been broken into and my briefcase and three pistols had been stolen.
I immediately notified the restaurant and called 911. I told the 911 operator that my car had been burglarized and that firearms had been stolen.
When the thief broke into the car, he had first tried breaking the driver’s window (only cracked it) and then busted out the rear driver’s-side passenger window. In doing so, he cut himself and there was blood and fingerprints everywhere. However, 911 stated “thank you for reporting the incident—an officer will call you later to take a report so you can file it with your insurance.” There wasn’t any police response and no evidence was collected.
I had a police officer call me at midnight for the report and I called the Records Division the next morning to provide the serial numbers for the stolen firearms.
The HPD officer working with the Montrose-area restaurant association checked the video of the parking lot and could only see a white SUV or minivan cruise the parking lot and then park next to mine. He then immediately saw my headlights start flashing as my car alarm went off. The officer could only see that the thief was a heavy set middle-aged black male. On October 9, I received a voice mail from another officer (with HPD Auto Theft) that said that the video didn’t provide any tangible evidence and that my case would be closed.
On October 8, I picked up my car from the collision center of the car dealer where I purchased the vehicle. As I was leaving, I pulled into a parking spot at the front of the dealership to plug in my iPod. When I did this, I opened the rear passenger door of the car to get the iPod out of my briefcase. I then noticed a lime-green cell phone in the cup holder built into the door. I immediately assumed that it belonged a member of the crew that had detailed the inside of my car (to wash off all of the blood) and dropped it off with the receptionist of the car dealer with instructions to return it to the collision center.
On October 9, immediately after receiving the voicemail from the HPD officer saying that my case had been closed, I received a voicemail from the collision center. I was not able to immediately check it and forgot to listen to it.
On the morning of October 10, I was eating breakfast and checked the voicemail. It said “the phone doesn’t belong to anyone at the dealership and, from what we can see on it, we believe that it belongs to the thief.”
I immediately went to the dealership and picked up the phone. It was a lime-green Samsung Galaxy and it wasn’t password protected. And it most definitely belonged to the thief. On the phone I found text message conversations where he was telling a friend that he had just got out of jail on a BMV charge (Burglary of a Motor Vehicle). There were multiple text conversations where he was attempting to sell stolen guns, watches, and purses. There were pictures of him with stolen purses, watches, guns, etc. Once I got home, I downloaded everything off of the phone that I could and contacted the officer working for the Montrose restaurant association.
The officer instructed me to immediately take the phone to the nearest HPD Command Center and have the phone put into evidence. I did this at 2:00 PM on Friday, October 10. On Saturday, October 11, I went through everything that I downloaded and searched the internet with the information that I found. I was able to identify the suspect and find the data on his prior arrests and convictions. This was all provided to HPD.
I then waited. And waited. And waited. I called and emailed HPD several times about my case and didn’t hear anything.
On Monday, October 27, I called the HPD Auto Theft Division and asked about the status of my case. They said that my case hadn’t been assigned yet. On Tuesday, I received an email that the case had been assigned to Auto Theft. I then called and asked for an update on my case. The officer said that the phone wasn’t enough evidence and that she needed a warrant to even view the phone and that a warrant couldn’t be obtained due to it being too difficult. She doubted that the DA’s office would act on my case.
A friend of mine talked to the Deputy Chief of Police and he had the Head of the Auto Theft Division contact me. He made lots of promises and then did nothing.
In 2013 the Houston Police Department solved non-violent crime at a rate of approximately 6%. Yes, they only solved cases 6 times out of 100. After seeing how lazy and unprofessional HPD acted in my case, I can see why.
The thief who broke into my car is named Zachary Moore. His date of birth is 04-09-1982 and his SPN# is 1777067 (this is the number used to track him in the Harris County court system). He has over 26 priors for auto burglary and other charges. He is professional criminal. He has been sued for paternity and support by three separate women. He was out on bond when he broke into my car. HPD didn’t care. The Harris County District Attorney’s office didn’t care. They view auto theft and auto burglary as insurance issues—not law enforcement issues.