The Blotter August 08 2007

RING OF FIRE: A married couple got into a fight in downtown Atlanta. The wife, age 24, said her husband got mad because she was drunk. She said he grabbed her throat and started choking her. She said she took off her wedding ring and threw it on the ground — and that made her husband even madder. She said he slapped her and she ran away, but he chased her down Pryor Street, asking where the wedding ring was now. She said, “I told you where it was.” The husband, age 25, fled before police arrived. The wife said she wanted to get her stuff and move out of their house. She also said her husband had her purse, ID and cell phone.

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NEWS FLASH: On Auburn Avenue, a boutique owner said a man walked into her store and screamed, “Fuck this shit, I’m Peter Jennings, I broadcast news worldwide. Give me some fucking clothes to wear, I’m hungry.” Then, she said, the man ranted, “I’m the law, I’m a police officer.” She said he refused to leave the boutique — and he screamed, knocked over stuff and threatened to hurt anyone who tried to stop him. She also said the man threatened to “blow this building up and y’all, too.” The man walked along Auburn Avenue, shouting profanity at the top of his lungs, police noted. An officer told him to calm down and lower his voice. The man shouted, “Fuck y’all, I’m not doing shit. Y’all can’t arrest me and I’m not going to jail for nothing.” After a foot chase, police detained the man. “[His] eyes became red and bugged out, his veins were bulging out of his neck,” an officer noted. He swung at officers, who then doused him with pepper spray. Eventually, the man went to jail. He is 50 years old, with gray hair. (Blotter note: The real Peter Jennings, who anchored ABC’s “World News Tonight,” died of cancer in 2005.)

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GOLD STANDARDS: On East Lake Terrace, a 28-year-old woman said someone entered her garage and took her monogrammed gold Notre Dame ring, and ate some chocolate candy. She said this person also used pruning shears to try to enter her white Mini Cooper, damaging the roof and sunroof. No suspects. The college ring is worth $400. (The Blotter Diva must note: The garage is not a jewelry box. I didn’t bother getting a college ring from my California school ... but if I had forked over the moola for a gold monogrammed college ring, I’d at least keep it in a dresser drawer.)

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MILK IT: At a restaurant on Donald Lee Hollowell Parkway, a waitress said she was cleaning a table when a plastic creamer hit her face. She believed a customer threw the plastic creamer at her. A police officer arrived and noted that the waitress used abrasive and abusive language toward him. The officer asked: “What do you want done about the situation?” The waitress said she wanted an apology and for the officer to do his job. The officer wrote, “I asked her if she was injured from the creamer and if she needed an ambulance. She stated, ‘Don’t patronize me. No, I don’t need an ambulance.’”

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The customer, a 38-year-old man, admitted that he tossed the creamer in the waitress’s direction, but he didn’t mean to hit her. The officer asked him to apologize to the waitress, and he did. But the waitress wouldn’t accept his apology. She said the officer needed to do his job, “unless I need to call another officer to do it for you.” So the officer called for backup.

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Two witnesses said they saw the customer throw the creamer at the waitress, and they had asked him: “Why did you do that?” They said he replied: “Just total aggravation.”

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The backup police arrived. According to the officer’s report, the restaurant manager and police heard restaurant employees “trying to make the dispute and the resolution of the dispute into a racial issue.”

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The customer was charged with disorderly conduct and taken to jail.

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I SEE A BLACK HONDA AND I WANT TO PAINT IT GRAY: A woman said someone dumped gray paint on the roof of her 2007 black Honda Fit, while it was parked outside her house on Dunseath Avenue. The woman, age 32, has no idea who the car painter could be. She said she hasn’t had any disputes with anyone.

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A REDHEAD WITH A CHERRY tattoo WALKS INTO A BAR: A 20-year-old woman said she met a redheaded woman about a month ago at the dance club where she works. She said about a week ago, she let this redheaded woman stay at her apartment on Alison Court. She said $1,600 in cash was stolen from underneath her dresser, and the redheaded woman is the only person who had access to her apartment when the money vanished. Since then, she said, this redheaded woman has called her several times, threatening to come over and kill her or have someone else kill her. The redhead is described as 4 feet 10 inches tall, with “Michael” tattooed on her back, and a cherry tattooed on her abdomen.

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THE ALL-CARB DIET? At a grocery store on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, a security guard said a man put five cases of Heineken beer and one loaf of bread into a grocery cart — and tried to leave without paying. The man, age 45, had no money on him. He went to jail for shoplifting.

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FOOD FOR THOUGHT: An officer responded to a prowling call at the Atlanta Food Bank on Joseph E. Lowery Boulevard. A 43-year-old man was sitting by the front gate with large garbage bags full of food. He said the janitor told him he could look in the Dumpster for food and take what he found. The officer ran a computer check on the man. Turns out he was wanted in Fulton County for burglary. He went to jail.

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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.