The Blotter May 18 2005

AN OFFICER WENT to Jobeth Avenue to deal with a "fight with handgun" call. Upon arrival, the officer spoke with a sanitation employee for the city of Atlanta. She was looking at the city's "right of way" between two homes, which needed to be cleaned up.

The sanitation employee said a woman emerged from her home and asked if the city was going to clean up the right of way. Yes, the sanitation worker replied. The woman got upset and said that you have to be a special person for the city of Atlanta to come out and do some work. The woman yelled, "You heard me, you big-eyed Popeye the sailor man - that you city of Atlanta workers don't do nothing."

The woman threatened to get her gun and shoot the sanitation worker. Then, the woman got her gun and pointed it at the sanitation worker.

The woman, age 67, was arrested and taken to jail.

A MAN WAS SLEEPING in the bedroom of his house on 8th Street and Piedmont Avenue. He woke up when a strange naked man tried join him in bed. The naked man wore a brown wig. The first man jumped up and told the naked man to get out of his house. The naked man left. After looking around his home, the man realized that the naked man had also eaten some of his food and drank some of his wine. Police found the naked man at another location. He appeared to be on drugs. He was taken to a hospital.

A NEIGHBOR DISPUTE broke out at an apartment complex on Piedmont Avenue. A 41-year-old man said the dispute was over a pizza and a steak — and his neighbor pushed and punched him in the face.The neighbor, however, said they fought over a toaster oven. The neighbor said the 41-year-old man banged on his door, and when he opened it, the 41-year-old pushed him, so he pushed back.

There were no signs of injury, and no arrests were made. Police told both neighbors that they could take out warrants on each other.

A 25-YEAR-OLD WOMAN on Biscayne Drive said she placed an ad for a roommate on a Christian website. A woman from overseas (possibly Malaysia or Singapore) responded and said she was interested. The overseas woman sent a check for $9,700 for the initial deposit for rent. The 25-year-old woman deposited the check in her account and it cleared. A few days later, the overseas woman e-mailed her and requested $5,000 of the money. The 25-year-old woman sent $5,000 via Western Union. Then, the overseas woman sent another e-mail requesting $2,000 - again, the 25-year-old sent the money via Western Union.

Then, the 25-year-old woman's bank called and said that the first check for $9,700 had bounced. Her account was left with almost no money.

An officer was working an extra job at a Buckhead nightclub. Outside the club, a drunk man approached the officer and said he had a conflict with a bodyguard for ex-basketball player Charles Barkley. The man said he was inside the club, taking photographs of Barkley with his digital camera, and the bodyguard told him to stop. The man took more pictures. Then, he said, the bodyguard put his hand in front of the camera. At some point, the man said, the camera was knocked from his hand to the ground.The officer spoke with Barkley's bodyguard, who said the incident was unintentional and he agreed to pay for the camera. The two men settled on a price for the camera. The matter appeared resolved. The officer said if he found the camera after the club closed, he would have it mailed to the owner.

Later, the camera man approached the officer again. He was crying and upset. He wanted something done about the camera. He said he wanted his pictures back. "After 30 minutes of listening to [the man's] verbal abuse toward me, I told him there was nothing more I could do for him," the officer wrote.

The man said, "Fuck you, I will not move, you will have to arrest me." Eventually, the man, age 38, was arrested for disorderly conduct. He hails from Murphy, Texas.

A 32-YEAR-OLD MAN clutching a cupcake tried to cross the intersection of Lavista and Cheshire Bridge roads — without using the crosswalk. He reached the middle of the road and was held up by oncoming traffic. The man got upset, started yelling, and threw the wrapper and cardboard bottom from the cupcake onto the road. The man was charged with littering and darting into traffic. He wore tan loafers.

AN OFFICER RESPONDED to a fight call at an apartment on Greenwood Avenue. Upon arrival, the officer saw that the apartment was ransacked: CDs were on the floor, the doorframe was broken. Inside the apartment, stood a 23-year-old man in a bathrobe. The man - who was drunk - said he stayed at this apartment with his girlfriend. He was bleeding from the left hand. The officer walked into the kitchen. Alcohol and water were on the floor. The man said he threw the items around the apartment because he graduated from Georgia Tech.

The officer contacted the man's girlfriend. She said they had a fight three weeks ago, but didn't know why he damaged her apartment today. The bathrobed man was taken to jail.

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