The Blotter September 20 2006

AN OFFICER was working an extra job at a hotel on Peachtree Street. He saw two men in black costumes. One man wore a mask, the other man did not. The masked man grabbed the other man and held on. The officer grabbed the masked man and repeatedly ordered him to let the other man go. The officer said he would take the masked man to the ground if he didn’t let go. The masked man said he’d had back surgery. “I don’t care,” the officer replied.

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The other man said he and the masked man were posing for a picture when he struck the masked man in the head with a fake gun. The man said he didn’t mean to hit the masked man. Then, he said, the masked man retaliated by hitting his chin. Neither man wanted to press charges. The officer sent both men in different directions. The police report did not detail what kind of costumes the men wore.

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AN OFFICER was dealing with a car accident at the intersection of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Bakers Ferry Road. He talked to one driver, a 50-year-old woman with dreadlocks. She immediately started to act like she was talking to Atlanta Police Chief Richard Pennington on an ear-piece phone. She said she worked for the police department. The officer asked for her driver’s license. The woman kept talking to herself and pretending to be on the phone. Finally, she handed over a copy of a Kentucky driver’s license and a Social Security card. Also, she handed over a plastic sleeve with a photo of herself on one side and a sticker that said “Junior Police Officer” on the other side. She said this card was for different agencies within the government.

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The officer looked in her car and found a half-empty 40-ounce bottle of Icehouse beer. The woman said she drank the beer while eating some chicken in the car. Then, she said the officer was a communist because he was locking her up. She said he should check her credentials, because she was the police chief of Ellenwood and an informant for the Atlanta Police Department and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

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The officer arrested her for giving false information, among other charges. Once they got to jail, the woman took an alcohol-breath test — and passed. Her belongings (including a broken fanny pack and some fake plastic money) were turned in to police. The officer wrote, “[The woman’s] large luggage bags and numerous piles of clothing were left in her vehicle at her request.”

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ON BOULEVARD, a woman said her boyfriend poured soup on her head. She said she and her boyfriend were arguing about their child’s clothing. She added that she was holding their child when her boyfriend poured soup on her head. The boyfriend, age 28, fled before police arrived.

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ON METROPOLITAN PARKWAY, two men walked into a Payless Shoe store. The manager noticed a large bulge in one man’s pants. She said she looked closer and realized that the man had stolen about 10 packs of socks. The sock man left the store and walked away.

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A MAN RETURNED TO HIS HOUSE on Glendale Avenue and realized he’d been robbed. A back window was pried open. Missing items included: three digital cameras, a camcorder and a suitcase. In the bathroom, the thief apparently left a beer bottle next to the toilet. Also, there was some bodily waste in the toilet, apparently left by the thief. Also, the thief ate something with a fork while in the home. An officer lifted fingerprints from the fork and bathtub and turned them in to police identification.

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AN OFFICER was patrolling an area that’s seen an increase in car break-ins near 14th and Snyder streets. He saw a 47-year-old man in a parking garage. As the officer approached, the man ducked down and hid behind a cement pillar. The officer stopped him and asked for ID. The man said he had a Georgia license and he knew the number. But apparently he didn’t have the license on him. So the officer ran the man’s name and license number on a police computer — the man wasn’t listed. Then, the man said he was going to get his license tomorrow. The officer asked how the man knew the license number before he even got it. The man said he was confused and didn’t understand. The officer asked if he had any ID. The man said he had a passport from Iran inside his house. The officer took the man to the house where he said he lived. The man didn’t have a key. The officer knocked on the door — no one answered. The officer arrested the man for prowling and searched him. The officer wrote, “I located a brochure/map of the Atlanta Hartsfield International Airport and all of the concourses in the airport in his pocket.” The officer asked why he had that map, and the man said it was for literature. The man went to jail.

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A SECURITY GUARD said a 22-year-old man was inside a porta-potty on Benjamin E. Mays Drive. She told the man to hurry up and leave. One hour later, the man was still inside the porta-potty. Again, she told him to leave. He refused. One hour after that, the security guard called 911. The man was still inside the porta-potty when a police officer arrived. The officer made him open the door. The officer found a needle, a lighter and one cigarette on the man. He went to jail for trespassing.

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Items in The Blotter are taken from actual Atlanta police reports. The Blotter Diva compiles them and puts them into her own words.