View from the cop: Crime & punishment
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AJC.com > Metro > View from the cop > Archives > 2005 > October
October 2005
Home security should include your windows
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A burglary was reported at an apartment on Virginia Road. The resident said he left the apartment unlocked. The next day he discovered that several items were missing.
Another burglary was reported on Glen Errol Road. The owner left the home around 10:45 a.m. and returned at 11:15.
She found that the window leading to the garage was broken. Another window, leading into the home, was later found forced open. There are two computers missing.
Here’s something to think about: The alarm system was on but, since the burglar entered through the windows and not doors, the system did not activate.
Wire the windows and consider motion detection inside the home and garage area.
Doh! Another Einstein in our midst
This guy’s method of operation was very slick. He walked into a Windward Parkway discount store and put a Falcons skullcap on and then, (this is the brilliant part) walked out of the store. The store security person detained him and he was later arrested.
Here’s how they caught him:
They have five million video cameras hanging from the ceiling in Wal-Mart.
Other things:
— A man reported that while looking for a shopping cart at the grocery store a dog jumped out of a car and bit him on the leg.
— On Telford Lane someone entered the victim’s garage and took $600 in packaged meat and fish from the victim’s refrigerator.
— Someone came into an office on Peachtree Dunwoody Road and took the victim’s wallet from her purse. She said she left the office for two minutes and upon return she discovered the theft. (It takes about 10 seconds max to complete this theft. Lock it up and hide your stuff when you leave your work area.)
— An officer walked into the bathroom of a North Fulton bar just about the time a man was in mid-snort of some cocaine he was ingesting from the end of one of his car keys. He was arrested. Timing is everything.
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Time to Vent!
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Monday is Halloween. Get flashlight batteries and light-reflective costumes for the little ones. Keep a close eye out. Use common sense and be safe.
Now, time for the Cop Corner Vent!
— Why is it landscaping guys blow leaves and trash into the middle of the road? I’ve checked it and there is no hole where the leaves disappear to. I want to see a federally funded program supplying two guys and leaf blowers charged with the responsibility of blowing the leaves back to the yard.
— Get off the cell phone. I can see, almost daily, near-misses involving gabbing drivers attempting to make a turn into the roadway. Put the dang phone down and make the turn.
— I actually am asked this occasionally. Don’t tell your kids it’s OK to have their friends over and then say it’s OK to drink as long as they surrender their car keys. Kids who drink tend to binge on whatever they’re drinking so even though you’ve collected the keys, how do you know what will result from allowing them to get trashed under your supervision? How do you know they won’t open the door and walk right out at 2 a.m. or drink to the point of toxic poisoning? Not a good idea.
— I know we have to sit at a lot of traffic lights but please, when the light turns green: GO!
— Take your purse OUT of the shopping cart while at the grocery store.
— Shred your paperwork going out with your trash! Check that credit history and read the bank and credit card statements carefully.
— Here’s another one: When you order checks and receive them, thumb through them to see that the number sequences are correct. It only takes a couple of minutes.
I feel better now.
What’s bugging you? Let me know and we’ll post your reply.
The story of the afro, phone and sewing machine
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Around noon, the Roberts Drive victim noticed his wallet was gone. He called the bank and was informed that the debit card he owned had been used twice. He was told that a Nokia phone was bought in Atlanta and a sewing machine was purchased in Buckhead. The amount of the sale exceeded the balance, so the card was declined.
The victim talked with the merchants, who told him the suspect was about 5’7” with a small afro. The sewing machine clerk said the man had a Metro PCS bag with him; the same as what was purchased by whoever stole the card.
The victim remembered that his friend has a roommate who matched that description, including the small afro. The victim talked to his friend, who told him his roommate complained earlier in the week that he lost his cell phone and Metro PCS would not replace it for free.
The suspect denied the accusation at first but then asked if the victim intended to press charges on him. The officers dispatched to the call spoke with the suspect, who happened to have a sewing machine in his room. The victim’s wallet was later found in a pair of the suspect’s pants in the closet. The victim’s driver’s license was missing.
The suspect was charged with financial transaction card fraud and taken to FC jail.
Diamonds were these guys’ best friend
A diamond merchant was in town and visited several locations to do business with customers. Later that night he left a Roswell Road restaurant where he and his bodyguard had dined.
The two were approached in the parking lot by a black Toyota Camry or Corolla with four males armed with guns and knives. The men held a gun to the merchant and demanded the bag, which contained diamonds. The man attempted to throw the bag to his bodyguard, but one of the suspects grabbed it and jumped into the car.
The bodyguard tried to force the runaway car’s door open but fell to the ground. He sustained an injury to his back and was taken by ambulance to Northside Hospital. Police are seeking the suspects.
Loose ends:
— Someone stole the victim’s FSU flag from the outside of his Deerfield Point Drive home.
— Some guys got into a fight, at Allen Park, over a dog. They were all charged with simple battery as well as one count of “dog running at large” and booked into magistrate court.
— Officers arrested a man who they saw yelling at his girlfriend, all the while holding a screwdriver. The man grabbed the victim’s cell phone and shattered it on the floor. The man threatened to kill the victim, “when the police get through with me.” The suspect was taken to FC jail.
— A guy who had been involved in an accident at Ga. 400 and I-285 gave the officer a false name. He assumed that they we don’t check that stuff out. He was arrested and taken to FC jail.
His priorities are a little off-base
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A guy went to a sporting goods store on Mount Vernon Highway and shoved $225 worth of goods in his pants.
After he was caught, the shopper said he was having hard times.
Nothing says relief for hard times than a new jock strap or a box of golf balls.
License to trash
This report indicates that a woman was served divorce papers while at the residence with the soon to be ex-husband. (I guess they are still in the same house.) After the divorce papers were served, the woman got mad and destroyed a bunch of stuff in the home. She was later charged with criminal trespass and taken to FC jail.
You need to plan these things better. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: When you are planning to divorce or leave your spouse or significant other, know that this type of news normally brings a negative reaction and it’s best to be two or three continents away when it hits the fan. Whatever you leave in the house will be either destroyed or somehow trashed, including you if you hang around enough.
Other things:
— A woman attempted to cash a fraudulent check at a Roswell Road bank. A check of her license flagged her as a fraud suspect. The suspect helped the pending prosecution by providing a thumbprint on the check about the same time she presented the driver’s license she didn’t know was flagged. The account holder’s checks did not match the sequence or style of the check presented by the suspect. She was arrested and taken to FC jail.
— A Trowbridge Lake woman reported that a man, whom she stayed with briefly, in this case meaning overnight, took her ATM card and used it at a bank. She did not remember the address where she spent the night.
— Officers were called to the rear of a Medlock Bridge Road bar on a person-injured call. The officers spoke with the bar employee, who said the man was drunk and injured himself when he fell over a keg of beer stored in the back. The man was heavily intoxicated and demanded the officers shoot him. They arrested him and took him to Grady Memorial Hospital for physical treatment for a cut and then to the 13th floor for a mental-health evaluation.
— Someone at a Sandy Springs Place grocery store stole a plastic bag containing the victim’s personal identification. The items were taken from the victim’s shopping cart. The bag was in a place that made it an easy target. Put the credit/debit cards as well as cash in your front pocket.
RoboCop proved dangers of computers
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
There has been a lot of discussion regarding the privatization of government services as a means of being more cost effective. Ultimately, this means fewer workers and less overhead. Robots have been manufactured to do the job that once took five people or more to do. All day long, robots put together cars and do other jobs such as material handling, paint spraying, arc welding, cleaning, grinding, polishing, etc.
We’ve given them more and more responsibilities. The upshot? We humanoids have reduced our own responsibilities and, ultimately, our own worth.
How far will this go?
One place you don’t want a robot is in a police car. Why?
Two words: RoboCop.
We all know that real life is merely a mirror image of films, TV and baseball cliches.
If you study robots enough you’ll see there’s a good chance they will eventually take on a life of their own, try to kill you and take over the world.
It’s as inevitable as the house band playing “Desperado” at last call.
Several models of robots are designed to find bombs. What they don’t tell us is that almost 5% of them have, at one time or another, chased the bomb-robot handler down the street with the bomb in its hand. A “glitch,” they said.
I don’t think so.
Robots are made by the people who eventually will get mad at everyone and then infect computers with a virus that will tell the robots to kill us and take over the world.
Those of you who have experienced viruses know that once your computer is infected, it will most likely turn on you. It would take over the world, but since it has no arms or built-in Gatling guns, it instead gives your credit card information to the rest of Planet Earth.
I’m pretty sure the computers have been talking to the robots. Here’s why:
A recent poll found that electronic stores have had a 27% increase in the number of toy robot returns due to “the unusually high number of family cats exploding in the vicinity of the robot.”
Some 17% of auto-maker employees reported that they were “accidentally” riveted in the butt by a robot designated to rivet trunk lids. The automakers insist that the robot misinterpreted the term “trunk” and the problem has been resolved.
Sure.
Peter Weller (RoboCop) tried to show us that robots are bad business when it comes to things like police work. He went to great effort to show us that not only do we have a legitimate reason to fear robots but apparently there’s no reason to live in Detroit.
Maybe we would understand robots a bit better if they could be personalized to fit the region or job that they’re built for — a kinder, gentler robot. Maybe have robot-sensitivity classes where we would exchange information about ourselves. Great idea, right?
Wrong!
They’re taking in all that data and converting it to some sort of digital stuff that we don’t understand and the first thing you know your office computer goes straight to the porn sites, your gas card gets rejected and your cell phone starts calling your ex-wife with an automated message that starts out saying, “I just don’t think I’m paying enough alimony.”
Just when you get home and turn on the TV to watch “Desperate Housewives”, someone knocks on the door and, sure enough, it’s a police robot with Gatling guns, wanting to shoot you and take over the world.
Who needs that?
Beer, and lots of it, to go
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Employees of a State Bridge Road bar reported about 15 beer containers were stolen by a man in beige Lincoln Continental.
The man cut a heavy cable and loaded the containers into his car. Several other businesses in this area have had similar thefts.
It’s just a video game, guys
Officers were called to the scene of a person injured on Northwood Drive. The victim said that he confronted a man whom he suspected of stealing his PlayStation video game system.
The suspect allegedly hit the man in the face with a chain. The suspect denied this, saying he had been assaulted by the other and defended himself. The officers did not find the chain.
Both were charged and are to appear at 2 p.m. on Dec. 12 for a preliminary hearing.
Rassling yields burglary suspects
A resident heard noises in her North Spalding Lake Drive garage and went to investigate. She saw three men, who promptly ran off. When officers arrived, they found enough footprints around to believe the suspects were still in the area. They were notified by another victim that he could see the suspects walking down the street.
The three were arrested after a foot chase and some rassling around on the ground. The suspects had been going through cars in the subdivision and had some items still on them. All three were charged with burglary, possession of tools to commit a crime, felony obstruction and several counts of entering an auto.
One was a juvenile and was released to his mother. The other two went to jail. It appears they used the juvenile as a lookout while going through about four cars. One of the officers did sustain an injury to his arm and wrist during the scuffle.
Shrooooms spell their doom
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Random acts of chaos and lawlessness:
— Just before 4:30 a.m. officers responded to a call of a suspicious car and people at the intersection of North Harris Ridge and Harris Trail. They found a white Chevrolet Blazer with two males. They arrested the two for drug charges stemming from finding some marijuana and some mushrooms (shroooooms to some of you) and over $2,600 cash. For those of you confused as to why someone would be in possession of and charged with mushrooms, type in “Psilocybin” in your Internet search engine and start reading. The two men were sent to the FC jail.
— A food delivery guy from a Chinese restaurant delivered $57 in food to a man in a Roswell Road apartment. The man took the food and then ran into the apartment, and then probably back out the rear window. The apartment was vacant. This is a common ripoff scenario. Sometimes they will use it as a setup for a robbery of the driver.
— A patrol officer was driving north on Roswell Road just south of the Abernathy Road intersection when he saw a man running up the sidewalk carrying a plastic bag. He then saw the manager of a grocery store, whom he knew, chasing the man. The officer detained the man and found the plastic bag in nearby bushes. This guy had located a receipt, probably somewhere in the store parking lot, and went up and down the aisles matching the groceries to the receipt. He obtained a refund from the customer service booth, a common practice. For his efforts ($23) he was arrested and taken to FC jail.
— Officers responded to St. Ives regarding a party with underage participants. The officer saw a young man, described as heavily intoxicated and barely able to stand, walking down the middle of the street. He had a bottle of Jack Daniel’s under his shirt and a 12-oz can of beer. The officers located another person. The officer said he smelled marijuana (burnt) and during a patdown for the safety of the officer, he located an object and asked the boy what it was. The boy replied that he didn’t know but didn’t want the officer to remove anything from his pockets. To the disappointment of the young man, the officer did check and came up with a ceramic pipe containing some residue of pot and a bag of pot. The juveniles were charged and released to their parents.
— A private school’s president saw three cars on the soccer field and track cutting doughnuts and damaging the turf. He went out and detained two of the cars and drivers but the third got away. The car that got away was a black Jeep CJ-7. (The tag number was obtained.) The two persons detained are students at Milton High School. They are charged with criminal trespass. Strangely enough, they didn’t know the third person. I would make these guys permanent gardeners for the academy on New Providence Road.
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Avoid being a victim: Act nuts
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
As long as we have stuff that other people want then other people will think of ways to take it from us. Sometimes we make the mistake of assuming that everyone is as basically honest as we are, or think ourselves to be.
We’ve got a whole subculture of those who don’t lie awake at night worrying about their dishonesty. In fact, that subculture has many different levels, ranging from those who cut corners on their expense accounts to those who just don’t have any regard for anything — including someone’s life.
There are more individuals working the streets than organized crime groups. Even so, most gangs, syndicates or even “families” don’t have longevity. They are done in by greed and almost all are far less organized that you would think.
If more than one person is involved in a crime it means that they’ve doubled their chances of being caught. Many conspiracies are toppled by crooks getting greedy or getting caught and turning someone. (The term “No honor among thieves” is well-founded.) Bottom line: They are not as sophisticated as you would think.
But back to their feeble criminal minds. There is too much opportunity out there. This is where you come in.
Home invasions bring terror home
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
At about 1:45 a.m. the north Fulton victim was unloading his bags from his car after arriving from the airport. Four men entered his home through the front door. At least one was armed. Three had shirts pulled over their faces and one had a bandana.
Two went upstairs. This victim rents the downstairs area from the other victims, who were upstairs asleep at the time.
The second victim said that he heard his dog barking and went downstairs. He was confronted by two of the suspects and struck on the head with a gun. He and his wife were ordered to the kitchen floor while the suspects ransacked several rooms.
The suspects took several items, including a laptop, purse, wallet, keys, $200 in cash, a cell phone and credit cards. One victim required medical attention (stitches.) The description of the suspects is vague, only that all were young. There is no vehicle description.
The victims’ credit cards were later used in Stone Mountain and Clarkston. Among the items taken was $12,000 in jewelry. In a followup interview, one of the victims said one of the suspects wore a ski mask.
We don’t have a lot of home invasions but, as in this case, they are extremely dangerous. It’s hard to tell people how to prevent one. You don’t know if it’s going to happen — unless you’re not drug dealer.
That becomes evident when the occupant of a $700 a month apartment reports a home invasion where the bad guy got a whole, big ol’ bunch of cash. I’m not talking to you. That’s the cost of doing business. You’re on your own.
All your ex’s should move to Texas, quickly
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A woman told police the following: She and her ex-husband got into a fight at Ketton Crossing. She was letting her ex live at her house since their divorce in August and until he closed on his new residence.
They got into a fight. She said he chased her around the home and grabbed her shirt, causing a slight scratch. He said she came into his room while he was sleeping and began yelling at him to leave. He said he grabbed her shirt in self-defense. They were both charged on a copy pending a Nov. 8 preliminary hearing. The ex-husband said he would find other arrangements.
This is one of those things that you should file under “Never Do.” I think that you need to immediately take up a new residence, perhaps even a new ZIP code, once you’ve divorced.
Cute couple loses cool
The leasing agent of a Dunwoody Place apartment complex reported that a resident came in upset over an air-conditioning problem. The man and his fiancee got into an argument with the leasing agent.
The fiancee began to curse. The agent told them to leave; the man threw a coffee pot at him. It missed. The officers charged the offender with simple assault and released him on a copy of charges.
Born to be wild — and forgetful
A patrol officer saw a man, on the I-285 exit ramp at Peachtree Dunwoody Road, standing next to his truck. The officer said the man was breathing very heavily. In the back of the truck was a motorcycle. The officer alked with the man, who told the officer he passed the exit ramp and saw the motorcycle.
He said he recognized the bike as his friend’s stolen bike, so he went to the trouble to load the bike into the truck. The man couldn’t recall the name of the friend. That, of course, is suspicious because most of us have a rule that if we don’t know your name, we probably won’t engage in manual labor on your behalf. The officer ran the tag on the bike. The bike was stolen from Union City, Ga., on the day before.
The officer told the man to call his friend to give him the good news but after several calls to several numbers the man gave up. He was charged with theft by receiving and taken to FC jail.
Cab caper creates criminal case
A cabbie picked up a woman at the airport and was told to drive her to Spalding Creek Court. The driver said he wasn’t familiar with the route and got lost a time or two. At the end of the ride he said the fare was just under $95, but due to his wrong turns, he would only charge her $80.
She said she would pay only $60. He went down to $75 and she refused to pay. The driver called the police. The officer explained to the rider that she needed to pay the fare or she would be subject to a theft of services charge.
The passenger said, “I refuse to give that (%#$#) any money!” She said that he physically abused her by snatching her luggage away from her and grabbing her arm in an attempt to take her walking cane. She showed a bruised arm, but the officer notes that the bruise looked old.
She was charged and released on a copy of charges.
There are avenues for one to make complaints about the services rendered but at the time of the payment due, such as this case, you’re better off making the payment, getting a receipt and then research it. Begin complaining to the entity that can make that decision.
Life is so difficult some times.
Other things:
— A woman purchased a Latte-Macho-Grande-Buenos Diaz-Dual-Quad something or the other at a coffee shop with a fake Visa traveler’s check for $100.
— The Morris Road victim said she came home and found all her lights had been left on. Nothing was missing. She said that someone entered her apartment before and left the blender on.
Talk behind my back? Smack!
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
If it’s Monday, it must be snippets:
— Two women at North River Drive got into an argument about each talking behind the other’s back. One woman said the other got into her face, yelled and slapped her. The slap caused a slight injury to the victim’s lip. Final result: Simple battery charge.
— A burglar got into the victim’s Sunflower Way residence through a garage window. The thief took a Panasonic flat-screen TV and $4,000 in currency. The cash was business money from his restaurant. If you own a business, big or small, deposit the money as soon as possible and DO NOT take it home. We have had several burglaries and robberies where the suspects knew the victims were taking the money home overnight.
— Someone kicked the Windridge Drive victim’s apartment door in and took several items. The victim said he suspects a friend, who smokes a lot of marijuana, because he knew the victim’s odd schedule. He said the friend buys pot from a fat guy at a Roswell Road service station.
— A Willow Heights Drive woman reported that at 2:30 p.m. she returned to her home and found a man inside. She asked him what he was doing. He replied, “I’m taking your stuff.” The man left in an unknown direction. She is missing 40 DVDs and 20 shirts.
— A man and a woman got into an argument. She stormed out and took his cell phone with her. He was mad and reported her as the thief. They were arguing over results of a paternity test.
