PADLOCK CUT.

CRIME NUMBERS $800 REWARD

The 10-foot flatbed utility trailer had been locked to a fence post beside the driveway of the Ouellettes’ Highland Meadows home for 11 years. It certainly got plenty of use. Her husband used it to haul equipment for their daughter’s Indian Princess camping trips through the years to places like Possum Kingdom Lake and Beavers Bend, Okla. He also used it for hauling a grill, canopy and other stuff to the Texas Motor Speedway for a few days of NASCAR racing and hanging out with friends.

The Victim: Lisa Ouellette

The Crime: Theft

Date: Thursday, Dec. 19

Time: Between 10 p.m. (Dec. 19) and 11 a.m. (Dec 20)

Location: 8600 block of Bacardi

“We also loaned it out to neighbors and friends,” Lisa Ouellette says.

But that handy trailer is now gone. Someone cut through the padlock that secured it and wheeled it away. Ouellette says she first noticed it as she left the house to run some errands and at first thought a friend or relative might have borrowed it, but not this time. She is still holding out hope that it might get returned.

Dallas Police Officer Mitchell Gatson of the Northeast Patrol Division says trailer locks that lock onto a wheel can possibly prevent trailer theft, but he adds that there are no foolproof plans to secure such items. The more difficult it is to steal something, the more likely a criminal is to move on to an easier target.

Neighbors have pooled cash in hopes of finding the person who shot and killed Lily, a beagle from the Whispering Hills area of Lake Highlands. At 10 p.m. On Dec. 23, Lily’s owner Myra Canterbury heard the dog yelp. It appeared someone popped her with a pellet gun through one of the slats in the fence, she says. Though Canterbury ran up some $2,000 in vet bills over the next couple days Lily eventually was euthanized due to her injuries. The entire neighborhood was saddened by the event and many offered to contribute to the reward for evidence leading to the prosecution of Lily’s shooter. Neighbor Richard Pruitt, who contributed to the reward, says he thinks the animal cruelty was committed by a misguided kid who needs help now.