Car stolen in Brookmont area of Bethesda

Montgomery County police are investigating the theft of a vehicle in the Brookmont area of Bethesda on Saturday afternoon, September 24, 2022. The vehicle was parked on the street in the 6500 block of Brookes Hill Court when it was reported stolen at 4:24 PM Saturday.

Another string of catalytic converter thefts in Bethesda

Another catalytic converter theft spree has hit the Bethesda area over the last couple of weeks, and the locations are really across the board. Victims have been primarily Toyota Prius owners, as hybrid vehicles have cleaner exhaust systems, making their converters much more valuable to thieves wanting to sell the rhodium and platinum found in them. Priuses have been targeted in Battery Park, North Bethesda near Fernwood and Greentree Roads, Brookmont and Grosvenor. 

There's not much you can do to prevent these thefts besides installing an anti-theft device on your converter, adding a motion-sensing light to your garage/driveway, or etching your license number onto the converter for law enforcement identification purposes. While time consuming, these actions might well be worth it if you own a hybrid vehicle.

Photos courtesy Toyota

Mystery noise keeping some Bethesda residents up at night

Several Bethesda and D.C. residents who live near the Potomac River inside the Beltway are reporting that they hear a loud, low humming sound during the night in recent months. There have been other nighttime noise mysteries from time to time in that area since the 1980s. Some would attribute them to secret goings-on at intelligence and military facilities in Sumner or Carderock.

While we can't definitively declare the current mystery solved, there's a possibility this particular noise may not require the attention of Fox Mulder. Since late summer, National Park Service contractors have been repaving Clara Barton Parkway. This work was to begin at Carderock and work its way in towards the District line by the end of the year.

The noise described does sound consistent with that heard in the River Road corridor when it was repaved about three years ago. Long, low humming and growling noises. At a distance, or inside structures, the sound may not immediately bring roadway resurfacing to mind.

Topographical factors may enhance the noise in this case. Clara Barton Parkway runs below neighborhoods at the bottom of a steep drop-off from homes located above it along MacArthur Boulevard. So the noise is going to refract off of the higher elevations on either side of the Potomac, and in the quiet of night, be even more noticeable.

Keep the reports coming in, however, in case the Mothman of West Virginia has relocated to our suburbs.

FAA drops flight path change over Bethesda

Residents have scored a temporary victory in the air wars over western Bethesda. The Federal Aviation Administration just announced it is dropping a proposed Reagan National Airport departure flight path change that would have increased airplane noise over western Bethesda neighborhoods along the Potomac River. Called LAZIR-B, the proposal went through an extensive review process and stirred outrage among affected Northwest D.C. and Bethesda neighborhoods. It would have moved the departure route closer to - and in some spots over - Bethesda homes.

Bethesda-Chevy Chase Regional Services Center Director Ken Hartman represents Montgomery County on the Reagan National Community Noise Working Group. The group overwhelmingly endorsed two recommendations by Montgomery County, which would have kept planes as close to the center of the river as possible, at its November 3 meeting. Combined with overwhelming resident and official opposition, the result was the FAA canceling its plan, which had been advertised as increasing efficiency and lowering the environmental impacts of jet travel.

In a statement, the FAA said it would continue to support the efforts of the Community Noise Working Group.

FAA schedules meeting on proposed flight path change toward Bethesda

Updated 12:00 AM September 3: The meeting location has been moved to downtown Bethesda due to "Back to School Night" at Westland MS. Please note the new location below

A public workshop will be held on September 15 to discuss a proposed flight path change from Reagan National Airport along the Potomac River. The meeting will be held at 6:30 PM at the Bethesda-Chevy Chase Regional Services Center, which is located at 4805 Edgemoor Lane in Bethesda.

Under the proposed change, the path of jets departing Reagan National would move 1525' closer to the Maryland side of the Potomac from its current departure route. Essentially, neighborhoods in McLean would get a relative break at Bethesda and Palisades residents' expense (though, considering both communities are very wealthy, one has to wonder what would tip the political scales in any particular direction in this case). In official terms, however, the change is part of the NextGen program that the Federal Aviation Administration expects to have significant environmental and efficiency benefits.

Among those predicted benefits, the FAA says, will be the saving of 2.1 million gallons of jet fuel, and 18200 metric tons of carbon. The new flight paths will also improve on-time performance of airlines operating out of major U.S. cities, the agency forecasts.

The FAA says its "noise modeling" of May 2016 tells them that "there would be no significant noise impact" on communities near the new flight path. It should be noted that computer modeling is not the same as measuring actual noise levels in the real world environment.

Attendees will be able to speak individually with experts, and comment on the proposed flight path change. Those comments will be reviewed by the FAA before it makes its final determination this fall.

Map courtesy FAA

THEFT AT OUR LADY OF LOURDES, VEHICLE BREAK-IN AT BETHESDA ROW GIANT - CRIME UPDATE

Here's a roundup of crimes reported across Bethesda on April 2, according to crime data:

Theft. 7300 block Wisconsin Avenue (north of Waverly Street).

Vehicle theft. 4900 block Hampden Lane.

Theft. Our Lady of Lourdes, 7500 Pearl Street.

Vehicle burglary. Bethesda Row Giant.

Theft. 6600 block Hillandale Road (Kenwood Forest).

Burglary. 5000 block River Hill Road (Brookmont).

Theft. 5400 block Edson Lane (White Flint).

Theft. 11300 block Rockville Pike (White Flint).