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The Blotter April 25 2007

Bizarre crimes from Atlanta police reports

AN OFFICER tracked a red Ford Mustang going 54 mph in a 35 mph zone on Piedmont Avenue. Five people were in the car, the officer noted. The officer spoke with the driver, a 21-year-old Tucker woman. She said she was the designated driver, and she’d only had one beer. She took some field sobriety evaluations — and was arrested for DUI. Just before she went to jail, the woman said, “This is where you tell me April Fools.” (Blotter note: Indeed, it was April 1, at about 5 a.m.) At the jail, the woman blew a .085 and a .084 on a breath test – just over the .080 legal limit for a blood-alcohol level.

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A MAN said he parked his car on Buckhead Avenue, and when he returned around 1:30 a.m., two people were in his car. He said a woman was in the driver’s seat, and a man in the passenger seat — and they were trying to take his car. He said he ran toward his car, someone punched him in the face, three men attacked him and his car was stolen. The man, age 38, said a bumper sticker on his car reads “Punk Not Dead.” He also said tuxedo shirts were in the car when it was stolen.

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AT A HEALTH-FOOD STORE IN LITTLE FIVE POINTS, an employee said she confronted a woman about stealing. The employee said she asked to see the woman’s purse — but the woman refused. Then, the employee said, the woman walked out of the store, leaving her purse behind. According to the employee, the purse contained $120.91 worth of stolen items, including peace incense, love incense, a vegan chocolate brownie, a veggie wrap, some herbs and avocado oil.

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AT A DRUGSTORE ON BROAD STREET, a security guard said he saw an 18-year-old girl open a package of ChapStick and try to leave the store without paying. The 18-year-old told police the lines were too long and she didn’t want to wait to pay for the ChapStick (worth $2). She was charged with shoplifting and went to jail.

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AN OFFICER HEARD A WOMAN SCREAM FOR HELP near the Greyhound bus station on Forsyth Street. The officer looked across the street, at a convenience store, and saw a woman swinging a white bucket at someone — and someone pushing a tree trunk at her face. The officer said, “Put down the bucket.” The woman turned and swung the bucket at the officer several times. The officer took out his police baton to subdue her. “The woman swung her arm with the bucket and grated my arm, taking a small piece of flesh,” the officer wrote, noting that the woman had a bloody nose from the tree-trunk-in-the-face portion of the incident. An employee at the convenience store said the woman grabbed a drink and threw it at him. He said the woman also threw a plateful of small pies at him, causing scratches on his arms. (The Blotter Diva wonders: What kind of pies cause scratches?) The woman, age 31, was charged with obstruction, simple battery and trespassing. She went to jail.

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ON CHAPPELL ROAD, police stopped a pickup truck for not having a tag light. The driver offered up multiple names for himself, the officer noted. Police fingerprinted the driver, a 45-year-old man, and ran a computer check. It revealed that the driver had used at least 10 names in the past. The man then said his name was “Abdulla Mohammed [three or four unintelligible names] Farrakhan” — however, he didn’t know how to spell his own name. The officer asked: “Why do you use so many names?” The man replied, “The devil tells me what to say and what names to use. He talks to me all the time.” The man said he was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and spent five years at Central State Hospital in Milledgeville for trying to commit suicide. During the arrest, the man said, “I might as well be dead,” and “I’d be better off dead.” Police took him to Grady Memorial Hospital.

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TWO OFFICERS responded to a call about a violent, mentally disturbed man beating on his 73-year-old mother’s door. When police arrived, the man was screaming and yelling. The mother said her son is bipolar. The son swung his arms and threatened to kick the officers’ asses. Police handcuffed the son so they could talk to the mother. She said that when she refused to let her son into the house, he kicked and beat the door, damaging it. The mother said she was afraid of her son, and he gets more violent every time she sees him. She said she is afraid he will hurt or kill her, due to his illness. The mother said she’s tried to get help from Georgia Regional Hospital and Fulton County courts, but they keep her son for a few days and then release him. Police arrested the son, age 55, for damaging private property. The son went to jail.

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ON LINDEN AVENUE, a man told police he was assaulted by a guy named “Robin Hood.” A police officer checked the area, but couldn’t find this Robin Hood. Then the man got belligerent because police couldn’t find Robin Hood. So the officer ran a computer check on the man’s name. Turns out, he’s wanted in Gwinnett County. The man, age 35, went to jail.

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A MAN contacted police and said someone stole his car on Jesse Hill Jr. Drive. The next day, the man called police again. He said he’d actually misplaced his car — it was right where he’d parked it on Auburn Avenue. Police canceled the stolen car report.

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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.






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