After allegedly running down two men in a parking lot with his vehicle, Joseph Michael Flores, 19, of Hobbs, was arrested on March 16 and charged with aggravated battery. The Hobbs Police Department criminal complaint states, one of the victims was unresponsive when officers arrived, had a large head wound, and was transported to Hobbs Covenant Health Hospital. The second …

Police say a man who claimed he “rented” a stolen car was caught with more than 80 grams of drugs and arrested for trafficking. Ernest Pineda, 35, of Hobbs, was found in a car reported stolen on Monday after the victim used On Star to locate the vehicle and notified police. According to a Hobbs Police Department criminal complaint, Pineda …

Three Hobbs children who were reported missing and endangered were found in Houston last week, more than two weeks after their sibling was left at a hospital in North Carolina with skull fractures. Andreea Ducila, 6, Raoul Badea, 4, and Elisabeta Badea, approximately 2-years-old, were all found by Houston Police on Friday. The details of how the family was located …

Hobbs Police officers identified a car burglar by a bicycle on Saturday. Dustin Harper, 35, of Hobbs, was arrested on Saturday after a car window was smashed in and the vehicle rummaged through at a business on the 2200 block North Turner. According to a Hobbs Police Department criminal complaint, officers found the car while patrolling the area and found …

Police officers suspect two thirteen-year-old juveniles of burglarizing 22 vehicles in a neighborhood before they were arrested. According to the HPD criminal complaint, two 13-year-old juveniles were arrested after a homeowner’s surveillance video caught them breaking into vehicles, including break-ins along West Coal, North Vista, North Jade, West Iron and North Cielo Streets. The report states on Sept. 5 officers …

After prior arrests for shoplifting at the same store, a Hobbs man steals $800 in jewelry, according to a Hobbs Police Department Report. Roque Castillo, 37, was arrested on Thursday and charged with shoplifting over $500, a fourth-degree felony. The report states, on April 1, Castillo and an unknown female at the time, went to a department store on the …

A Hobbs man was arrested for breaking into vehicles and stealing people’s belongings, again. Tahjh Traeyvond Collins, 23, of Hobbs, was arrested on Monday and charged with burglary, a fourth-degree felony and resisting, evading, obstructing an officer, a misdemeanor. Police were called to the 200 block West Mesa after a call was made regarding a male subject wearing a black …

A Hobbs man was arrested for breaking into vehicles and stealing people’s belongings, again. Tahjh Traeyvond Collins, 23, of Hobbs, was arrested on Monday and charged with burglary, a fourth-degree felony and resisting, evading, obstructing an officer, a misdemeanor. Police were called to the 200 block West Mesa after a call was made regarding a male subject wearing a black …

Hobbsans are making it too easy for crimes to take place. Hobbs Police Department administrators are shaking their heads in disappointment over the number of vehicle burglaries and thefts taking place. Not because of the amount of crimes, which stands at 12 auto burglaries and 15 auto thefts since Nov. 1 through Nov. 15, but because of how easy the …

A police captain in Arizona has been chosen as the next police chief of Hobbs. The City of Hobbs announced in a news release Wednesday that John Joseph Ortolano, a 21-year veteran employee of the Arizona Department of Public Safety, has accepted a conditional offer of employment to become the city’s 25th police chief. Acting City Manager Manny Gomez said …