McCook Residents Say Crime Is Constant Threat


Reported by: Stephanie Bertini
Last Update: 5/12 8:55 pm

MCCOOK - People in a remote area in Hidalgo County say crime is a constant threat. It’s one of the Valley's main passage ways for smuggling.

McCook is an area where people are isolated. It’s easy for criminals to do their deeds. Mccook sits close to the Starr County line. The people who live in McCook say recent pseudo-cop stops are causing the real cops to get involved.

McCook is a tiny community, the kind of place where everyone knows everyone. It’s the kind of town where they don't need a newspaper to know the good and bad there.

“This was really a very nice, calm community to live in at the beginning," says Eugene Pilarczyk of McCook Merchantile Co.

Pilarczyk was born and raised in McCook. His family business, a general store, is one of the town’s only landmarks. It sits along FM 490, a road Pilarczyk says criminals, especially smugglers, have come to use a lot.

"They run their vehicles through here. They carry their dope and their drugs. They go through this area to avoid police, and they do the same with their immigrants,â€