The Blotter May 16 2007

STUPID-CROOK-OF-THE-MONTH AWARD: At City Hall East, an officer saw a man wheeling a Home Depot shopping cart filled with stuff. "He was coming down a ramp that leads to secured parking for police vehicles," the officer noted. The man's shopping cart contained two police radios that belong in squad cars, copper wiring used to wire police cars and an air hose. The officer asked: "Why are you here and where did you get this stuff?" The man said he'd gotten the items from a Dumpster. The officer wrote, "The items came from the fenced area that is behind the city shop. There is no large dumpster there. The police radios and wire had been taken out of police cars that were being worked on." The man, age 54, was arrested. His shopping cart was returned to the Home Depot across the street from City Hall East. (The Blotter Diva must note, an alleged crook who goes to police headquarters to steal police equipment from a police car ... that belongs in the Blotter Hall of Fame.)

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FLYING THE FRIENDLY SKIES: A Delta Airlines agent said a woman was walking around and hugging customers at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. The officer found the suspect hugger (a 35-year-old woman wearing a trenchcoat). He asked her to walk with him. Instead, the woman started kissing another customer. The customer didn't welcome her advances. The officer grabbed the woman's arm and led her away, but the woman fell onto the floor and started yelling. At this point, the officer realized that the woman was completely nude underneath the trenchcoat: "While on the floor, [the woman] was pulling up her coat and yelling, 'Look, police, look.'" The officer handcuffed her. "[The woman] continued to show her naked body to the customers around the area. We attempted to cover her up, but she would remove the covers," the officer wrote. Medics took her to the psychiatric ward at Grady Memorial Hospital.

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TRASH TALKING, PART I: Two city of Atlanta sanitation workers were in a fist fight on Delano Street, a witness said. A 40-year-old sanitation worker said he and the younger worker hadn't been getting along all day, while working their trash route. He said he and the younger sanitation worker got into a shoving match.

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The younger worker said they got into a physical fight, and it was over. Apparently, the argument was about who was in charge of the trash route. Police ticketed both sanitation workers and turned them over to their supervisor.

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TRASH TALKING, PART II: Two city of Atlanta sanitation workers got into a tiff on Englewood Avenue. A 31-year-old worker said his co-worker poked him in the eye several times because he refused to accept his offer to go fire a gun in the woods. He said the co-worker invited him to the woods to test a new weapon he'd just acquired. But, the 31-year-old said, when he turned down the offer, the co-worker got mad. He said the eye-poking occurred while he was driving a city truck, and he almost wrecked.

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The co-worker fled when police arrived. His supervisor had heard of many complaints about the co-worker (a 41-year-old Decatur man), about his attitude and violent behavior. The complaints include the co-worker being armed with knives at work ... and boasting about being armed with guns at work. (A Blotter lesson: Don't piss off your trash guy.)

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TRASH TALKING, PART III: An officer responded to a neighbor dispute on Eastside Avenue. As he stepped out of the car, an elderly woman started yelling about trash in her yard and other "rambling-type comments," the officer noted.

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A 31-year-old man said he'd called police. He said he came home from work that day and remembered that he needed gas, so he did a U-turn and noted there was no wet substance in his driveway. He said he went to the nearest gas station, returned about seven minutes later – and saw a wet substance in the driveway. He said the elderly woman ran over with a bucket in her hand, got in his face and yelled, "Yeah, I did it. Yeah, I did it." He ignored her and called police. He said this is an ongoing problem with the elderly woman, and she's always throwing trash in his yard – including old meat with flies on it. The elderly woman (age 76) was charged with acting violent with another. She went to jail.

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AT A BANK IN MIDTOWN, a 20-year-old male bank teller was fired for making a statement that referenced the Virginia Tech massacre. According to a police report, the man said, "I am fixing to do that here, the last two here are the first to go [referring to two new employees]." Nothing further.

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AT A BANK IN BUCKHEAD, a female employee said an ex-employee walked inside to make a transaction. The ex-employee told her that his personal life was in disarray since he got fired from a nearby branch of the bank. According to the police report, "He stated he felt like pulling a Virginia Tech because he was still unemployed. He also said he would hack his former manager in half if he saw her again because she had him fired. He told the [female employee] she was on his 'shit list,' but after talking to her today, she no longer was." Police filed a report on the 41-year-old man.

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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.