Border Patrol agent’s gear stolen outside LongHorn in Charlotte, 911 calls show
While a U.S. Border Patrol agent dined inside a Charlotte Longhorn Steakhouse last month, someone stole his uniform, badge, laptop and magazines, 911 calls revealed.
Recorded emergency calls dialed during the first couple days of the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement operation in Charlotte showed that people who were targeted by agents or witnessed arrests dialed 911 for help — and so did the federal officers.
The federal agent on Nov. 15 — the first day of the Department of Homeland Security’s “Charlotte’s Web” operation — told a dispatcher he finished dinner at the Steele Creek LongHorn Steakhouse just after 9 p.m. and came outside to find the back window of his rented Denali SUV broken.
He searched through the car as he described what was missing.
“They must have climbed in because they rifled through the glove box and they stole a backpack,” the agent said.
In that backpack, there was a Border Patrol uniform, badge and $2,000 laptop, he said. A fanny pack with pistol magazines and a $2,000 Border Patrol radio was also gone, he said. A Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department incident report says the missing items totaled $4,302.
The Charlotte Observer obtained recordings of the 911 calls in a public records reqeust. CMPD did not respond to an Observer email asking if there has been an arrest in two and a half weeks since the LongHorn incident.
911 calls on first weekend of DHS operation
The 911 calls (which CMPD distorts and redacts to protect callers’ identities, per state law) also reveal testimony from people who interacted with or saw the Department of Homeland Security agents led by Gregory Bovino on Nov. 15 and Nov. 16.
Saturday Nov. 15 at 11:59 a.m. — A man called to report agents broke the window of his red truck, threw him on the ground and handcuffed him outside a Wells Fargo and diner on South Boulevard even though he had documentation proving his citizenship. The Observer reported the man, U.S. citizen Willy Aceituno was injured in the incident and agents stole his keys. He was calling 911 to make a police report documenting those details.
Saturday Nov. 15 at 3:25 p.m. — A person called 911 saying agents “took my friend” and was trying to learn where agents were taking “people with immigration cases.” The dispatcher said an officer would call her back.
Saturday, Nov. 15 at 5:57 p.m. — A woman speaking Spanish called to say her friend was borrowing her car when agents took him. Now the car was missing.
Saturday, Nov. 15 at 8:41 p.m. — A worker at Courtyard Marriott Steele Creek called to report nearly 20 calls to the hotel in two hours. Protestors kept calling to say the hotel — rumored to be housing agents — was “housing terrorists” and announcing they would be coming to the hotel that evening to make noise and make “sure that they can’t sleep.”
Saturday, Nov. 15 at 9:08 p.m. — The Border Patrol agent called outside the Longhorn Steakhouse at 4909 Trojan Drive.
Sunday, Nov. 16 at 11:16 a.m. — A caller reports that about eight “crazy people” were acting like police, wearing body armor, pulling guns out and in “fake uniforms” that say CIA and FBI. The dispatcher asks: “Were they possibly customs agents?” The caller says they look like fake officers taking and “robbing people.” “The CIA is not gonna be out here doing nothing like that… they’re taking a whole lot of people,” the caller says.
Sunday. Nov. 16 at 2:16 p.m. — A person inside the Atrium University City Emergency Department said there were a “bunch of self-declared ICE agents who are interfering with patient care” and medical staff. There were about six, and three were in plain clothes, the caller said. The person called back at 2:21 p.m. to report the people had left.
Sunday, Nov. 16 at 2:21 p.m. — A person called on the corner of East Sugar Creek Drive and Eastway Drive to say they were in a “fender bender” and needed to make a report. At 2:57 p.m., a man called back to say they were still waiting for police to come make the report and revealed he was a Border Patrol agent. He said there were a “whole bunch of agitators causing a disturbance with the agents” and requested police come out “for the safety of the agents and other civilians involved in the accident.”
Sunday. Nov. 16 at 6:20 p.m. — A person who said he owns the Holiday Inn on Savoy Corporate Drive reported there was a “big bus” parked outside the hotel and he didn’t know “if they’re ICE agents or what they are, but they’re hovering around and making my guests uncomfortable.” He wanted police to inform them that they were trespassing on private property. He called back five minutes later to say the people had left.
