The Blotter March 03 2010

WHOLE LOTTO TROUBLE: An officer responded to a call on Conley Street. A 50-year-old man known as “Johnny Lee Outlaw” said he was walking to cash his winning lottery tickets when two men approached him. Johnny Lee Outlaw said one man got his attention by saying, “Hey dad.”

“Mr. Outlaw said that people in the neighborhood would call him ‘dad’ by nickname,” the officer wrote. “Mr. Outlaw said he told the two [men] that he was going to the store to cash in his lottery tickets.” Mr. Outlaw said the tall man wanted to see his lottery tickets – but he said no. At that moment, the tall man reportedly tried to snatch the lottery tickets out of Mr. Outlaw’s hands, the officer wrote. “While Mr. Outlaw was trying to flee to safety, he said he tripped and fell.”

Mr. Outlaw said while he was on the ground, the two men beat him with belts and stole his lottery tickets. He said the men fled on foot.

According to the police report, Mr. Outlaw was out two lottery tickets worth $35 total and three lottery tickets worth $1 each.

SPOOKED AT SCHOOL: A middle-aged woman allegedly scared kids and staffers at an elementary school on Donald Lee Hollowell Parkway. A teacher said the woman was screaming, hitting cars and using profanity around kids. Also, the teacher was afraid that the woman damaged her car because she hit the car with a metal umbrella. The teacher described the woman and showed police the direction in which the woman had left. Police found the 50-year-old woman, charged her with disorderly conduct and took her to jail. Absolutely no motive for the woman’s alleged freakout was listed in the police report.

FANCY FEAST: At a grocery store on Cheshire Bridge Road, a man allegedly tried to steal one pack of bacon-wrapped scallops, a pack of T-bone steaks, a pack of tenderloin steaks, and some crab cakes. A security guard said he saw the man stuffing the items inside his jacket. After a police officer arrested the man, “he uttered that he was willing to pay for the items and he would even pay triple the amount if he could be released without going to jail,” the officer wrote. The man, 20, hails from Fayetteville. He went to jail.

NEXT TIME, KEEP IT IN YOUR POCKET: At Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, a man said he fell asleep in the atrium while waiting for his friend in the military to arrive. The man said his Blackberry phone was on his chest when he fell asleep — but it was gone when he woke up. He said he went to the police precinct and security footage showed a woman removing the phone from his chest. The man said his phone was used to call a number in Minnesota.

DISAPPEARING ACT: An officer responded to call about a missing person. A 35-year-old man said his older brother has been missing for about two days and his brother is a certified schizophrenic, possibly off his medication. The man said he last saw his brother a few days ago after they left the mental ward, and he checked his brother into a homeless shelter on Pryor Street. The man said his brother called him about two nights ago and said he was at Underground Atlanta looking for a bar. The man said he waited two days and when he didn’t hear from his brother again, he called the homeless shelter and someone there said his brother had not returned.

The man said he called Grady Memorial Hospital, and an employee said there was a patient with his brother’s name – but the employee could not tell him anything else. So the man called the Atlanta Police Department. An officer wrote, “After I arrived at Grady Hospital, I spoke with the ER check-in nurse and her supervisor, who advised that there was [no patient with the brother’s name] in the hospital. I was then notified by a Grady security adviser that there was such a person on the 13th floor psychiatric ward in 13B.”

The officer checked with the psychiatric supervisor, who reportedly said the brother was in the hospital two days ago but he was discharged that same day.

Next, the officer checked with Emory and Atlanta Medical Center hospitals and verified that the brother wasn’t at either hospital. “I also verified with City of Atlanta and Fulton County jail that he was not arrested,” the officer wrote.

The man said his brother, 46, was last seen wearing a dark jacket with a yellow stripe and yellow numbers on one shoulder – sort of resembling a construction worker’s shirt. The brother has a beard, dark hair and carries a blue backpack. The man said his brother usually walks slowly and is almost always smoking a cigarette. “He advised that he left his brother with a little bit of cash and that his brother does like bars,” the officer wrote.

PURSE PROBLEM: A 31-year-old Alabama man said he parked his 2007 red Ford Mustang outside a location on Brookline Street one night. He said when he returned to his car the next day, a window was broken out. The man reported the following items missing: a pair of blue jeans and a handbag containing shoes.

BLUE JEAN BONANZA: Around 10:30 a.m., a man allegedly stole 13 pairs of Hugo Boss jeans from Nordstrom at Phipps Plaza. A police officer looked at the video surveillance tape. “The suspect spends about a minute inside the store and can be seen coming in and then running out the same door with the blue jeans in his hands,” the officer wrote. A Nordstrom employee said he chased the man, who hopped into a black Honda Accord with a dealer drive-out tag and drove away. The 13 pairs of Hugo Boss jeans are worth $1,625.

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