The Blotter March 05 2003

On Alabama Street, a 25-year-old woman and her mother were waiting for a MARTA bus. On a nearby sidewalk sat a 68-year-old woman in a flowered dress. The elderly woman called the 25-year-old a “bitch, hoe and shit.” She called the mother a “dead bitch.” The 25-year-old asked the elderly woman to stop cursing at her while she was talking on her cell phone. At some point, the elderly woman raised a long stick and said, “I will beat your ass.” Police arrived and charged the elderly woman with disorderly conduct. According to police, this elderly woman “has a history of tormenting people walking on city sidewalks, by cursing or forcing the gospel on them.”

A 49-year-old man on Moreland Avenue said he had been shot. An officer arrived and an ambulance was dispatched. The officer asked the man where he’d been shot. The man said he’d been shot in the back. The officer noted, “I inspected his back and did not see wounds of any type on his back.” The man said he just wanted to go to the hospital. The officer asked why. The man couldn’t give a reason. The officer asked the man if he had any other injuries or ailments. The man said no. The officer arrested the man for requesting an ambulance unnecessarily.

Police investigated a call about a stolen identity on Oleander Street. A man said someone checked into Grady Hospital, used his personal information and charged the bill to his name. The man has no idea who impersonated him. But he said he gets a lot of mail with his personal information on it, and it’s possible that someone stole his mail. Also, someone ordered a cell phone in the man’s name and didn’t pay the bill.

At a grocery store on Monroe Drive, a 54-year-old woman was looking at a display of stuffed animals. A clean-cut man stood next to her. The man kept bumping into her and dropping the stuffed animals. They both kept picking up the stuffed animals, and the man kept talking in a very nice way, she said. The woman said she wondered why he was bumping into her, but didn’t think anything more about it. When the woman got to the check-out line, she realized her gold Susan Lucci wallet was gone. (Blotter note: Susan Lucci is an actress who plays scheming diva Erica Kane on the soap opera “All My Children.”)

At a gas station on Howell Mill Road, a 22-year-old shirtless man screamed and yelled in the parking lot. The 22-year-old took items from the back of his pickup truck and broke them on the ground. He threw concrete bricks at the store and threatened bystanders. The store manager started locking up the entrance. One customer left the store, and the 22-year-old ripped a button off his shirt and pushed him. When police arrived, the 22-year-old was standing on a large gas container. He jumped up and down and said, “I’m not going to jail.” The officer started to arrest him. “I’m going to get guns in my car and kill everybody out here!” he said. After a struggle, the 22-year-old was arrested and taken to Grady Hospital. He said he took LSD and crystal meth earlier that evening.

A male employee at a government building on Englewood Avenue said a middle-aged man called at 7:50 a.m. about a sewer drain in his yard. According to the employee, the caller was upset because his yard was washing away. The caller lives on Parian Ridge Road. The employee said he tried to explain that the city was not responsible for the storm drains. Then, the caller got mad and developed a nasty attitude, said the employee. The caller called him a motherfucker and said the employee better get someone out there to fix his yard or he would come down there. The employee hung up. The man called back for about an hour. The employee filed a police report.

On Windsor Street, a 55-year-old man argued with his live-in girlfriend. Then, he went to sleep. He awoke to discover his girlfriend pouring hot water on him. Medical workers said the 55-year-old had on several layers of clothes, which protected him from the water. The 55-year-old was treated for minor burns.

A 34-year-old man was in bed at a redheaded woman’s house on Lookout Avenue. He got up to use the bathroom. While he was in the bathroom, he saw the woman grab his pants and run to the kitchen. The woman took $675 from his pants pocket. He tried to get his money back, but she pushed him away. He walked into the bedroom. Then, he tried again to get his money. This time, she grabbed a knife and started poking him. The man called police, and she fled. He’s known the woman for three months.

A 40-year-old woman met her boyfriend in December 2002. He spent the night at her house on Stovall Street a few times. The boyfriend gave her children a black Labrador puppy. One day, the boyfriend came over and gave her $100. Later, the boyfriend returned and asked for the money back. The woman said she didn’t have all the money, but returned some money. The boyfriend left again. When he returned, he was very aggravated. She asked him to leave. He threw a boom box and a nightstand across the room. The boyfriend walked out the door, yelling. Then, he turned around and headed back to her house. She shut the door. The boyfriend grabbed the puppy from her bed on the front porch and threw the dog against the front door. The puppy died, most likely of a broken neck. Police charged the boyfriend with aggravated cruelty to animals.

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