SAN ANTONIO — Out of town criminals going to New Braunfels is a trend police said they have been dealing with several years. Meanwhile, in the last five weeks there have been five major cases involving suspects that are not from the community. They’re accused in burglaries, drugs, and vehicle theft cases.
New Braunfels Police Captain of Operations Mike Penshorn said the booming town is a target because of its location.
“We do have a lot,” he said. “Being on the IH-35 corridor we have a lot of people passing through and because of that we are a pretty easy target. Lots of them from San Antonio, Austin, Houston area.”
The crimes vary, from these out of towner’s. However, Penshorn talked about what he and his officers typically see.
“A lot of those are stolen vehicles, vehicle burglaries,” he said.
Just this week, three suspects are accused of wearing masks and breaking into a truck at a restaurant parking lot. Police said they stole a gun from that truck. And shortly after, New Braunfels Police chased the trio and arrested them. Two of the men are from San Antonio. The third suspect is Felipe Jesus Tijerina from Grand Prairie. Police said Tijerina had two outstanding warrants out of Bexar County for aggravated robbery.
“That is someone that is a very serious criminal and you can’t just let them go,” he said.
Penshorn made it clear his officers will chase, if it is safe to do so.
“I think with a lot of jurisdictions they have a tendency to run from the police automatically,” he said. “Here we take a much more serious stance. We know these are serious offenders that we are looking for and it is really important for us for the protection of the community to catch those people.”
Penshorn said one way to fight this problem is assigning officers to certain districts in New Braunfels, so they know the area very well. He said the goal is for officers to be proactive and look for the crime.
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