(Updated at 4 p.m.) Two weeks before Christmas, someone has apparently stolen a nativity scene from a church in the Barcroft neighborhood.
But the pastor of Our Savior Lutheran Church (825 S. Taylor Street), Wayne Fredericksen, is turning the other cheek.
(Updated at 11:10 a.m.) A theft suspect in a U-Haul managed to flee from police in Pentagon City last week.
The theft happened just before 4 p.m. at or near the Pentagon Row shopping center. The suspect, a woman, reportedly stole a large quantity of clothing and beauty items before fleeing in a rental truck driven by second suspect, a man.
A man tried to steal a gun from an Arlington gun store last week but was chased down by a store manager as he tried to flee.
The incident happened Thursday around 6:30 p.m. at Nova Armory, which is now located at 2607 Wilson Blvd in Clarendon.
(Updated at 3:35 p.m.) Police swarmed the Rosslyn neighborhood after an alleged thief led an officer on a brief foot pursuit.
The incident happened just before 2 p.m. An officer chased a suspect who had stolen a large quantity of laundry detergent from a store in Rosslyn, according to scanner traffic, before finally detaining the person near the intersection of Wilson Blvd and N. Pierce Street.
(Updated on 11/30/22) The carjacking and pursuit we reported yesterday was far from the only car theft in Arlington over the long Thanksgiving holiday.
It was a busy few days for police, who handled a half dozen other vehicle thefts, as well as a pair of attempted carjackings in the Colonial Village area. One series of thefts claimed five vehicles in parts of residential North Arlington between Thanksgiving afternoon and the morning of Black Friday.
Another airbag theft spree has happened in Arlington.
The spree was reported to police Thursday morning in the Long Branch Creek neighborhood. Airbags were stolen from nine Honda vehicles, according to Arlington County police.
Airbag theft has been an ongoing problem this year in Arlington, but police just put two alleged thieves behind bars.
The arrests happened early Sunday, after three vehicles were damaged and two had airbags stolen along the 2100 block of Columbia Pike, two blocks east of Bob & Edith’s Diner.
Arlington police handled several significant incidents over the weekend, including a fight in Clarendon that sent a man to the hospital.
The fight happened in the heart of Clarendon’s bar district, on the 3100 block of Clarendon Blvd, early Saturday morning. The victim was trying to break up a dispute between the suspect and a friend when he was struck and seriously injured by the suspect, police say.
There has been even more drama in the Gold’s Gym parking lot near Ballston.
The parking lot has gained notoriety after featuring prominently into the Virginia Attorney General’s largely unsuccessful lawsuit against Advanced Towing last year and, more recently, being the scene of an alleged assault that led to the resignation of a D.C. deputy mayor this week.
Arlington has seen an explosion in catalytic converter thefts over the past two years, according to updated stats from county police.
Between Jan. 1 and Oct. 3 of this year, 172 such thefts were reported to the Arlington County Police Department, according to a department spokesperson. That’s up more than 2,350% compared to the 7 catalytic converter thefts reported during the same time period in 2020.
Just days after the last reported series of airbag thefts in Arlington, police are investigating another.
Arlington County police say a thief or thieves smashed windows on and stole airbags from three Honda vehicles on the 900 block of S. Rolfe Street, near Towers Park.
Thieves recently stole nearly a dozen catalytic converters early Wednesday in a crime spree that spanned numerous North Arlington neighborhoods, police say.
Word of the thefts follows Wednesday’s arrest of three people from Chicago who were allegedly seen tampering with cars near Columbia Pike and found with catalytic converters and power tools.
