Crime Roundup: Daytime Burglary, Sexual Assaults, Capital Crescent Trail Attacks

It’s been a busy week for crime, especially outside of Potomac's borders. 

• Burglaries have plagued the Bethesda area recently, and the culprits aren’t just skulking around the dead of night.

Montgomery County Second District police say that two Bethesda burglaries took place while the homeowners were working outside in their yards. In both incidents, the homeowners came face-to-face with the suspects, Chevy Chase Patch reported.

• On Thursday a prominent swim coach turned himself into police in a case in which he is alleged to have sexually abused a teenage swimmer in the 1980s.

Richard Curl surrendered to police Thursday after a warrant was issued for his arrest on Tuesday. Curl, 63, was charged with one count of child abuse. He is the founder of the Curl-Burke Swim Club in Damascus—a club known for training Olympic athletes.

In July, a former swim student came forward in an article in The Washington Post alleging that a sexual relationship began between the two in 1983 at Georgetown Prepatory School, where the club leased the pool.

• A scuffle between homeless men led to a stabbing on the Capital Crescent Trail Friday afternoon in Bethesda

The incident comes amid multiple attacks, including a possible sexual assault, that has park police increasing patrols along the trail, Bethesda Patch reports.

• In Rockville an alcohol and drug treatment worker has been accused of falsifying drug test results in exchange for bribes and then later lied to a grand jury about her actions.

Rockville Patch on Tuesday reported that Lauren Jeannette Diggs, 50, has been charged with conspiracy to seek and accept a bribe, witness tampering and making false statements to the grand jury. If convicted, she faces up to 55 years in prison, as well as fines and restitution. Read more on Rockville Patch.

• Early last week in Bethesda a 27-year-old Manassas woman with a history of psychiatric issues lead police on two car chases along streets in Virginia, Bethesda and Rockville.

The incident that left traffic snarled in its wake, began with reports of gun fire at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center Bethesda campus. Police say one shot was fired after the woman, later identified as Angela Akosua Cobbold, backed into a security vehicle near the North Gate of Naval Support Activity Bethesda just before noon. The drama continued with a police chase through the streets of Bethesda and Rockville, culminating in a crash near a Harris Teeter construction site where Cobbold was apprehended.

It was later revealed that Cobbold recently had been released from a mental facility. During the Tuesday incident, she was reportedly eating a bar of soap. Cobbold has been charged with first degree assault, according to Montgomery County police, and a judge has ordered a mental health evaluation before her bond hearing set for Oct. 31. Read more of the drama on Potomac Patch.

What other crime news around the DMV has caught your interest? Tell us in the comments!