The Blotter April 07 2010

MRS. CLAWS: An officer responded to a fight call at Emory Hospital’s emergency room. A 37-year-old man said he and his wife started arguing while he was driving on I-20. He said his wife put her hand in his face, obscuring his vision, and she kept pushing his head while he was driving. The man said he repeatedly told his wife to stop and calm down, but she wouldn’t listen, so he pulled over in the emergency lane on I-20. The man said he tried to convince his wife to get out of the car, but she refused, so he got back onto I-20 and kept going.

The man said he drove to a place on Peachtree Street for his doctor’s appointment – that’s when his wife called 911.

The wife’s side of the story: She said they argued on I-20 and her husband pulled into the emergency lane, grabbed her jacket and tried to get out of the car. She said she grabbed her husband’s hand and that’s when her fingernails scratched him. She said they eventually got to Emory Hospital, where she called 911 and said her husband attacked her in the parking lot.

After speaking with the couple, the officer noted that the wife “seemed to be the primary aggressor based on physical evidence.”

The married couple was charged with disturbing the peace. The wife went to jail and the husband got a ticket. The couple hails from Lithia Springs.

DUDE, IT’S A POLICE CAR! An officer was in his patrol car near Piedmont Road and Miami Circle. “While sitting at a stop light,” the officer noticed a white Ford van in the next lane. “The listed vehicle next to my patrol vehicle turned left while the light was red,” the officer noted. So the officer stopped the Ford van and talked with the driver, a 27-year-old man. He had an ID card showing he lived in Beaverton, Ore. Also, he had a driver’s license from Brazil that expired last year. The officer charged him with driving while unlicensed and running a red light. He went to jail and his van was impounded.

IT’S A GAS, GAS, GAS: A 32-year-old man said someone stole his identity for gas. The man said he figured this out when he tried to get the gas turned on at his new apartment on Plaza Lane. He said he called SCANA Energy and someone there said he already had an outstanding gas bill for $2,245 at an apartment on Coleman Street. The man said he never lived on Coleman Street or knew anyone who did.

GRANDMA DESERVES BETTER: A 73-year-old woman said her son and her granddaughter argued over the computer at her home on Beaver Falls Place. The grandmother said she tried to diffuse the argument, but her son and granddaughter both got verbally abusive toward her. The grandmother said she wanted them out of her house — so she called police. (Apparently, the 47-year-old son and 26-year-old granddaughter live at the grandmother’s house.)

A police officer noted the son was “very disrespectful and fusing” at his mother and the granddaughter was verbally abusive toward her.

Police tried to detain the granddaughter, who resisted. She “stated that she wanted to hurt herself. She grabbed her grandmother’s pills off of the table and put them in her mouth to swallow them,” an officer wrote. So the officer called an ambulance and handcuffed the granddaughter, who “continued to beat her head against the floor.” Medics sedated the granddaughter and calmed her down.

Then the son complained of chest pains. Police charged the son and granddaughter with disorderly conduct and took them both to the detention center at Grady Memorial Hospital.

BREAKING UP IS HARD TO DO: A 46-year-old woman said she is going to tow away her car from her former neighbor’s home. The woman said she and her husband recently lost their home next door on Bolton Road. “After they moved, they left their 1997 Nissan Sentra at their neighbor’s house for safekeeping,” the officer wrote.

Since then, the couple had problems and separated. The woman said she brought friends who had a truck and a tow trailer. But the neighbor called the woman’s husband at work and the husband said not to release the car.

The officer checked the car’s registration. Turns out, it’s registered to both the husband and wife. The officer said the car is the couple’s common property and he would not get involved in deciding who gets the car because the dispute was civil, not criminal.

The wife removed the tow trailer from the car. Over the phone, the husband said he would report the car stolen or go to his wife’s house and take the car back. The officer explained that the husband could not report the car stolen because the wife is also a registered owner. So technically, the wife can’t steal a car she owns.

SINKING PROPERTY VALUES: Around 8 a.m., an officer responded to a call about an open door at a home on Bellview Avenue. “I observed water coming from the house and running into the street,” the officer wrote. “The front door was also ajar.” The officer went inside and looked around. “The sink had apparently been taken from the counter and the pipes disconnected. This caused the water to begin leaking.” Police could not find a homeowner.

FALL THROUGH THE CRACKS: Around 10 a.m. an officer with binoculars watched a middle-aged man on Peachtree Street. “The man allegedly started loading a suspected crack rock into a pipe, while he looked left and right,” the officer noted. When the officer drove up, the man “quickly dropped the crack rock on the ground,” the officer noted.

“You got me, I smoke crack,” the man said. A computer check revealed the man is on probation, so the officer radioed in a call to his probation officer. The man reportedly got upset. “I have smoked crack for 30 years, I will do what I want,” the man said. (He’s 52, so apparently he started smoking crack as a 22-year-old man.) Also, he accused the officer of setting him up and planting crack on him. He went to jail on numerous charges.

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