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Austin woman accused of killing neighbor over stolen 'bouncy house'
Austin police are searching for 30-year-old Nora Lopez, who has been accused of shooting and ultimately killing her neighbor over an altercation involving a stolen "bouncy house."
APD said the incident occurred around 8 a.m. on Nov. 1 on the 8400 block of GarCreek Circle in East Austin. Police received calls of gunshots in the area and arrived on the scene to find 52-year-old James Traylor with multiple gunshot wounds. Traylor was taken to the hospital where he died about an hour later.
APD News Release: Suspect Wanted for Homicide in the 8400 Block of GarCreek Cir. - https://t.co/8MC78wlvQxpic.twitter.com/JseMutNcKt
— Austin Police Department (@Austin_Police) November 4, 2021
Officers said witnesses told them Lopez and Traylor had been arguing over the "alleged theft of a bouncy house." Officers said Lopez shot Traylor several times before fleeing the scene.
An arrest warrant for first-degree murder has been issued for Lopez and anyone who has information about the incident is asked to call APD Homicide at 512-974-TIPS or Crime Stoppers at 512-472-8477. Information leading to an arrest could earn a reward of up to $1,000.
This is Austin's 77th homicide this year.
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A $6,000 cockatoo named Lemon Grab was stolen from a pet store Sunday afternoon, owner Kelsey Fernandez said. (Kelsey Fernandez)
A big-money bird has been stolen from a northwest Austin pet store.
Kelsey Fernandez, the owner of a $6,000 sulphur and citron-crested cockatoo named Lemon Grab, said the emotional support animal was taken from the Gallery of Pets store, around closing time on Sunday.
"I've struggled with mental illness my entire life, and ever since I got him I've been doing so much better," Fernandez told Austonia.
The $6k cockatoo is young and will starve unless he is fed by hand, Fernandez said.
In a surveillance video, a man appears to have something under his shirt as he and two others exit the business around the same time the store believes that Lemon Grab was stolen.
Fernandez said a report has been filed with the Austin Police Department with an $1,000 reward for his return.
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(Pexels)
Introverts and personal space lovers may not want to make the move to Austin anytime soon: The Texas capital saw a bigger increase in one-bedroom rent prices than almost any other U.S. city in April, according to a Rent.com report.
Austin's one-bedroom rent has more than doubled—a 112% increase—from April 2021 to 2022, the report said. Only Oklahoma City saw a higher year-over-year increase with a 133% jump.
Austin also had the fourth-highest increase in two-bedroom rent, with a 50% increase in the past year. The city joined a nationwide trend where rents were up 8.3% year-over-year across the U.S, a trend exacerbated by a 6.2% increase in inflation in the same time period.
But "not everyone is experiencing inflation the same way," Redfin Deputy Chief Economist Taylor Marr said in the report, and a brunt of the load has gone to cities with more move-ins. While over 90% of state rental markets increased in the last year, that jump was seen most in Sun Belt states, including Texas, Arizona and Florida.
Even with breakneck increases in rent, however, Austin's rent prices still haven't cracked the top 10: the city's one-bedroom apartments are the 12th most expensive in the nation with an average price of $2,918. Meanwhile, its two-bedrooms fall behind Texas cities Frisco, Dallas and Plano and come out 34th on the list with a $2,302 average monthly rent.
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