The Blotter November 25 2009

STIFLED SINGER? A woman called police and said a strange man harassed her at her home on Renault Road. The man did not threaten her life in any way, she said. She said the man came to her house and shouted, “Na na na na na” to her. Then he left. She doesn’t know the man. Nothing further.

BE THANKFUL IF you HAVE A HOME: Someone called police about two people allegedly in a vacant home. The caller refused to give a name, and does not own the vacant home on Leslie Street. So two officers checked out the vacant home. “The room had a mattress, candy wrappers, and two buckets of urine,” an officer noted. “A sign in the window said the property was bank-owned.” Police found a 31-year-old woman and a 58-year-old man inside. Both went to jail on trespassing charges.

MEN IN BLACK: A clerk said two men dressed in black clothes walked into a gas station on Joseph E. Lowery Boulevard. According to the clerk, one man grabbed a large plastic jar of Now and Later candy and the other man grabbed a large plastic jar of Laffy Taffy candy, and they ran out of the store. (The candy is worth about $30.) Police canvassed the area and found a man who had both candy jars. The clerk positively identified him. The 42-year-old man was jailed on a shoplifting charge.

VIRTUAL SCAM: A 27-year-old Atlanta woman said she got a message from a friend on Facebook and the message stated her friend is in Britain and she had been robbed and needed money sent to her via Western Union. The 27-year-old woman said she went to the Western Union in Powers Ferry Village and sent $1,000 to Britain. A few hours later, the friend contacted the Atlanta woman and said her Facebook account had been hacked. The friend said she is still in the U.S. and she had not been robbed — and she didn’t need any money. The 27-year-old woman said she called Western Union and they told her that the money had already been picked up in the U.K. and there was nothing they could do about it.

MORNING IN L5P: Outside a bar on Euclid Avenue, a man was “standing in the street, yelling at a passing motorist,” an officer wrote. It was about 10 a.m. “I came up to [the man] and asked him if he had been drinking and he said yes, he had been drinking all night long,” the officer wrote. “I asked [him] why he was in the middle of the street with traffic, and he said he was mad because one of the drivers said something to him.” The officer patted down the man and reportedly found a folding knife in his pocket. “I then got out a ruler and the blade of the knife measured 3 ¼ inches long,” the officer wrote. The man was charged with carrying a prohibited weapon. The man, age 51, hails from Pensacola, Fla.

JUMP THE GUN: An officer responded to a fight call on Rockmart Drive. A 36-year-old man said, “I am homeless and I was asleep in my truck when a man came out of that house and pointed a gun at me.” The man pointed at a house on a hill. The man said he lives in his car, a 1994 gray Dodge, which had broken down, so he had parked on the hill.
     The officer went to the house on the hill. An elderly woman answered the door. She said her brother lives with her, but he wasn’t home.
     A few minutes later, the brother arrived home in a white pickup truck. “I got up this morning around 6 a.m. ’cause I had to go to Home Depot,” the brother said. “I saw that the gray truck was still parked up on the hill. I left my house and when I came back the truck was now parked in front of my house and my dog was barking and going crazy. I went into the house and got my gun and walked out to confront the male in the truck. The gun was for my safety.”
The officer asked to see the gun. The gun was large and was wrapped in a white sheet several times, the officer noted. The brother said the gun was inside the sheet during the confrontation. The officer asked if he pointed the gun at the other man. “No, I am a country boy and I kept it pointed down,” the brother said. “That man can’t even tell you the color or kind of gun it is, sir.”
     The officer asked the 36-year-old man to describe the gun. “A big one,” he said. “A big, uh, black and brown one, and when I saw the barrel it stopped my heart.” The officer asked, “You saw both barrels of the gun?” The man replied, “I really didn’t see the barrels of the gun.” The gun was a single barrel shotgun.
     The officer ran a check on the 36-year-old man’s car — turns out, the car is not registered or insured. So the officer called for a tow truck and the 36-year-old man got mad. “[He] stated he was a television producer and he does not need this and this only proves that the police hate people in the ghetto.” The car was towed. No charges filed.

STRANGE CONVERSATION: An undercover officer said a man approached him on Harris Street. The man appeared tipsy, the officer noted. The man said his girlfriend left him for another man and kicked him out of the house two weeks ago — and he lost his job three weeks before that, the officer wrote. “[He] then asked me if I could give him something to eat. I replied no and then [he] asked me to buy him some food because I look like I have money.” The officer refused again and ignored the man by pretending to send a text message on his phone. The man allegedly touched the officer’s arm and asked for money again. No, the officer said. “He then asked if I could take him somewhere and get him something to drink. I replied no and looked away and started to walk away and [the man] touched my right arm again to get my attention. [The man] then asked if I could get him a beer or something because he was thirsty and his woman left him. The officer said no again, adding, “I don’t have any money, I have to work two jobs.” The man reportedly sat down outside Peachtree Center and asked other people for money. The officer arrested the 46-year-old man for disorderly conduct.

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