The Blotter December 02 2009

‘TIS THE SEASON: An officer got a call about a man allegedly damaging trees at Atlantic Station. “When I arrived, [the man] had in his possession, Christmas lights from the trees,” the officer wrote. “He admitted removing the lights, but could not explain why. He damaged the trees while doing so.” The man, 47, was ticketed for disorderly conduct.

HOLIDAY CHEER: A 33-year-old man called police to report an argument he had with a City of Atlanta Public Works employee. An officer arrived to take the report. The man said he was riding his bike home when he noticed four Public Works employees standing outside their cars. The man said the employees were just standing around and not working “hard enough” so he took out his video camera and started to record them “not working on city time,” the officer wrote. The man said while he recorded the employees standing around their cars, he was taunted to “turn off that camera, you white cracker.” The man said one employee threatened to hit him over the head with a camera if he didn’t turn off his camera. The man said more words were exchanged and the employees left in their cars. The officer wrote, “I asked [the man] why did he feel the need to record the city workers and he stated that he just got his tax bill and felt that his tax money was being wasted.” Nothing further.

DECK THE HALLS: An officer responded to a dispute at a Chinese restaurant on Broad Street. A man was inside the restaurant, throwing trash on the floor and cursing at customers, the officer wrote. “He left the scene when he saw me, walked across the street and then began hitting my patrol car,” the officer wrote. “He knocked the side mirror out of place and tried to walk off.” The officer stopped the man, 51, and arrested him for disorderly conduct. He went to jail.

THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR: On Donald Lee Hollowell Parkway, a man said he was just lying on the couch when his girlfriend threw hot water on him. He said they were having an argument. The boyfriend said he doesn’t own a phone, so he walked to his house on Markone Street to call police. Also, the boyfriend said he had been drinking all day. “He also appeared to be swaying and staggering and was having trouble forming sentences,” an officer wrote. Apparently, the girlfriend fled before police arrived.

PERSISTENT POSER? An Atlanta police officer was conducting a follow-up investigation with DeKalb County Police Intelligence about alleged police impersonators. During the investigation, a 23-year-old man’s name “came to our attention as a person who had active warrants in DeKalb for impersonating the police,” the officer wrote. “It was noted that [the 23-year-old man] had, at one time, been a police applicant with the Atlanta Police Department and I felt that accessing his information would give investigators some insight into [the man’s] whereabouts.”

The officer met with the Background and Recruitment Department to get a copy of the 23-year-old man’s background paperwork. While the officer was reviewing the file at his desk, a lieutenant from Background and Recruitment called and said the 23-year-old man had just walked into his office to test for the position of Police officer. The officer called a detective with Dekalb County Police – who drove to Atlanta Police headquarters to arrest the 23-year-old man.

ANIMAL PLANET: Two neighbors bickered over pets on Forrest Circle. A 19-year-old man said his neighbor’s pitbull dog got loose and started chasing his mother’s cats. He said he asked the dog’s owner, an 18-year-old woman, to get her dog — but she refused. She said she couldn’t get her dog because the dog would not come to her. He said the pitbull kept chasing his mother’s cat and he warned the neighbor that if her dog bit his mother’s cat, he was going to shoot the dog.

The 18-year-old woman said he took out a small handgun from his pocket and pointed it at her dog. The man denied having a gun. He said the woman charged at him, grabbed him, pulled out one of his dreads and cut his ear. The woman said the man sat on her chest, knocked off her glasses and threw them. The man said the woman left and returned with a knife – then she went over to his mother’s Honda Acura and banged on the hood and sides.

The officer searched the man, but did not find a gun. The woman had no visible injuries; the man had a small cut on his ear, the officer noted. There were visible dents on the Honda Acura. The officer asked both parties several times if they wanted to press charges. The man said yes, the woman said no. The woman went to jail on a property damage charge.

TROUBLE FOLLOWS TROUBLE: An officer reported a man riding his bike the wrong way on a one-way street. The 42-year-old man “freely admitted he was on probation for breaking into cars,” the officer wrote. The man got a ticket for riding the wrong way on Courtland Street.

NO ELEMENT OF SURPRISE: Bank employees said a customer told them about three men wearing facemasks and wigs, standing outside the bank on Cheshire Bridge Road. The employees locked the doors, as the men walked up. When the men realized the door was locked, they ran away on foot, employees said. “They left a bag with a baseball cap and a wig inside, in a Dumpster a short distance away,” an officer wrote.

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