The Blotter February 26 2004

On Howard Street, a woman said she paid a man $1,800 for a roofing job, but he never actually did the work. She tried to contact the man numerous times. According to the police report, “[The man] is known to travel with a big bird in his vehicle. Type of bird unknown.”

An officer responded to a car accident in a parking lot on Bolton Road. A man said he was standing beside his parked car when another car pulled into the lot and almost hit him. He had to move to avoid injury. The car hit his car, causing a 6-inch dent.

The driver of the second car, a blond woman, said she hardly touched the man’s car. The officer noticed that she had trouble maintaining her balance and her eyes were red. The officer asked, “Have you been drinking?” She replied, “I had a beer.” The officer asked her to say some letters of the alphabet. She failed that sobriety test. The officer then asked her to perform a heel-to-toe walk. On the third step, she almost fell. The officer arrested her for DUI and asked if she wanted to take a Breathalyzer test. The woman asked, “Are you stupid?” Then the woman told the officer to hurry up because she had more beer to drink.

The woman, age 60, went to jail.

A Gainesville man called police and said his car, a 1991 Dodge Dakota, was missing. The man, age 48, said he went to a drug home on Division Street and passed out after digesting several drugs. When he regained consciousness, he enrolled himself into Georgia Regional Hospital for substance abuse. Several days later, he realized his car was missing. A computer check revealed the car was towed after police found it on Daisy Mill Road, abandoned and damaged from an accident. On the police report, the man’s occupation is listed as “not working.”

A 41-year-old woman said someone kept calling her at work and asking her, “What color are your pantyhose?” She told the caller that his phone number had been traced. He called back and threatened to kill her. He called again and said he was on his way to her location. No suspects.

On Metropolitan Parkway, an officer saw a black Cadillac with a man in the driver’s seat and a woman’s head in his lap. A second officer pulled the woman out of the car. The first officer noticed that the man’s pants were unzipped. The officer asked, “What’s going on?” The man said he just saw a pretty woman standing on the street and thought he would try to get to know her better, and that they were just talking. The officer asked the woman, “What’s going on?” She said the man paid her $40 to perform a sexual act. The woman was charged with prostitution; the man with solicitation and carrying a concealed weapon (police found a handgun in the car).

Someone rang the doorbell of an elderly woman’s home on Camilla Street. The elderly woman opened the door, and a middle-aged woman told her she had a gas leak. The elderly woman said she didn’t smell gas. The middle-aged woman examined her water tank and said it had too many pots and pans around it. The middle-aged woman asked the elderly woman for $3 and permission to use the phone. “I don’t have any money,” the elderly woman said. The middle-aged woman asked for a screwdriver to tag the heater (although she never actually tagged the heater). After 20 minutes, the middle-aged woman left. The only item missing: the elderly woman’s Detrol prescription tablets.

An officer saw a man walking down an I-85 access ramp. While speaking to the man, the officer noticed “that he had previously urinated on himself.” He appeared under the influence of drugs or alcohol. The man, age 45, went to jail. In the police report, the officer noted that the man was ambidextrous.

An officer responded to a call about a shoplifting in progress at a convenience store on Jonesboro Road. En route, the officer got another call saying the suspect had left the store and was wearing a yellow cap and black coat. The officer spotted the suspect walking on Jonesboro Road. The officer asked him if he had been at the convenience store, and he said no. The suspect smelled strongly of marijuana. The officer asked him if he had any drugs on him. The suspect showed what was left of a “blunt.” The officer took him back to the convenience store. The clerk ID’d the suspect and said he tried to steal a cigarette lighter. The clerk had locked the suspect inside the store until he put the lighter back. The man said he told the clerk that he only wanted to borrow the lighter so he could “fire up a blunt.”

The suspect, age 18, was jailed for possession of marijuana and shoplifting.

At an office building on Peachtree Road, the office manager reported an “office creeper.” A strange man was walking through the offices on the sixth and eighth floors. A worker saw the creeper by his desk. The creeper quickly walked away. Then, the worker noticed that his laptop computer was completely unplugged and moved to a different spot on his desk. The creeper didn’t steal anything, but employees believe he was trying to steal.

The office creeper is described as a thirtysomething bald man wearing a brown coat and pants.

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