The Blotter August 14 2002

A 41-year-old woman on Mayson Avenue said her ex-husband has entered her home and harassed her. She has protective orders against him, but when the police are called, the ex-husband flees from her home. The woman found cereal boxes and beer under her house, which she believes belong to her ex-husband.

At 8:30 a.m., a deliveryman stopped his truck at a red light on 7th Street. A passerby signaled that there was a problem at the back of his truck. The deliveryman looked in his rearview mirror and saw a tall thin man walking away with a case of Grand Marnier (worth $500). The deliveryman got out of the truck and approached the thin man, who was now sitting in a Ford F150. The deliveryman said, “Give me that back or I will have you locked up.” The man replied, “You’ll have me locked up?” Then, the man cut his steering wheel sharply to the left and veered. The deliveryman had to jump sideways to get out of the way.

A woman called police about a suspicious package at her rehearsal studio on Hills Place. The woman said the package arrived at her studio, but it was addressed to another studio. She opened the package, and a strong odor burst forth. Her eyes and tongue started to burn. The fire department checked the package and determined it was a food item that had gone bad. They asked a police officer to get rid of it. “I disposed of the bag in a nearby Dumpster,” wrote the officer.

A man went out to a club and then returned to his apartment on Coronet Way and noticed that the front door had been kicked in. The man said the suspect went into his bedroom and rummaged through his drawers. The only items missing were condoms ($5 worth). The man said that earlier, he had $700 in his drawers, but he took the money with him to the club. He suspects one of his friends was looking for that money.

At 9:17 a.m., an officer responded to a call about a silent alarm at a public health center on Bankhead Highway. The officer arrived four minutes later. A fiftyish man, who said he was the director of the Grady Health System Pharmacy Department, was standing in front of the center. The officer asked if everything was OK. The man said he intentionally set off the silent alarm just to see how long it would take the officer to get there. The officer ran a computer check and found that Atlanta police have been dispatched to the health center 14 times since January. The officer informed his supervisor of the man’s disregard for public safety. No charges were filed.

On Howell Street, an officer saw a 20-year-old woman running away from other police officers. The officer stopped the woman. The officer wrote in the police report, “While talking to [the 20-year-old], it appeared that she didn’t have on any pants. [The 20-year-old] stated that she had on her underwares.” The woman said she had to cross over two main streets to get to the current location. She was charged with public indecency and taken to jail.

On Elm Street, a 43-year-old man said he was sitting and drinking in his apartment when his ex-girlfriend walked in, threw a brick and hit him on the head. He said the front door was unlocked and the ex-girlfriend had stained teeth. The man sustained a cut on his head, but he refused to go to the hospital.

At a grocery store on Ponce de Leon Avenue, a manager saw a 44-year-old man conceal 72 bars of soap inside a bag and walk out of the store. The man was stopped at the intersection of Ponce de Leon and Highland avenues, and police were called. The man admitted to stealing the soap, but disputed the amount of soap that he stole. He said there were only 42 bars of soap in the bag. According to the police report, all 72 bars of soap were returned to the store.

An undercover officer driving a Chevy Suburban pulled into the parking lot of a convenience store on Campbellton Road. A 21-year-old man approached the undercover officer and said, “Do you want a dub (a $20 hit of crack) for your truck?”
The officer replied, “No, man. I’m not trading my truck.”

The officer said someone had just stolen his car stereo. He showed the damaged, empty dashboard to the 21-year-old man. The 21-year-old said he would sell him a car stereo — he had a bunch in his trunk. He opened the trunk, which contained four car stereos. The officer told the man that he better not have his car stereo in there. The 21-year-old replied, “I don’t know, I might.” The officer called for backup. Officers searched the 21-year-old and found in his pockets 24 bags of suspected crack, a $50 slab of suspected crack and three grams of cocaine.

The manager of a cafe on Piedmont Road arrived at work and noticed that the patio was disturbed. Further investigation revealed that someone climbed the fence using magazine paper to cover his hands and then stole the bubblegum machine on the patio.

Someone broke into a church on Grant Street and took $160.84 worth of napkins and trash bags, an air conditioner and $25 worth of pennies. The suspect also dented the refrigerator door.


i>All items in The Blotter are taken from actual Atlanta police reports and are public record.