View from the cop: Crime & punishment
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AJC.com > Metro > View from the cop > Archives > 2005 > December > 28 > Entry
Peach of an ending to theft
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A customer was arrested for stealing a peach from a grocery store. He has been stealing quite frequently, according to the store employees, and had been given warnings not to come back. He was arrested and released on a copy of charges.
The peach was returned to the employee.
You see, we always get these reports of food stolen and then recovered, but we never hear what happens to the food.
Always remove keys when leaving car
A man and his three kids pulled into a Roswell Road gas station. The dad left the kids in the car as he went inside. Two kids followed him inside. The third child remained in the car. The car was left running.
A man walked up to the car and got in. He turned to the child and told her to get out, which she did. She went in the store and told her father what was going on. He chased the car and managed to get the passenger door open, but the car then sped away.
The car was last seen on Belle Isle Road.
Take the keys out of the car anytime you park it, especially at a business.
These bad guys not exactly MIT grads
Two men forced an employee back into a Roswell Road restaurant after the employee opened the rear door to take garbage out.
The armed men told the employees to do what they told them. Unfortunately for the bad guys, they did not tell the victims what to do, so the victims just kind of tried to look busy.
The two bad guys then decided to charge into the dining area and wave their pistols at everyone, but there weren’t too many people there to wave at.
They couldn’t find anyone with any money and, as the witnesses reported, they couldn’t even find the office of the restaurant. They ran around a little while longer and then ran outside and got into a burgundy Toyota Camry.
To the surprise of everyone who witnessed the robbery, they managed to drive away without hitting anything.
2005 mop-up
— A State Bridge Road resident reported someone took two concrete lion statues from his driveway. The items weigh 250 pounds apiece.
— I had someone e-mail me and question something I wrote the other day regarding safety tips during the holiday. I mentioned solicitors and how to treat them. (Hopefully not well.) I started thinking about it and so instead of slightly opening the door to tell them to go away, it may be better not to open the door at all.
Comments
Commenting is now closed for this entry.
By bill hester
December 28, 2005 1:52 PM | Link to this
There is a home in Dekalb County on Windsor Parkway that has 2 lions on brick columns at the entrance to the driveway. They have been chained down for years. Wonder how many they lost before they resorted to chains? A friend who lived in Little 5 Points had to chain down his porch furniture after losing several items. “Anything that isn’t red-hot or chained down”.
By Stephen
December 28, 2005 4:46 PM | Link to this
Whenever the rare solicitor comes to my house, I can rarely open the door anyway, because of my four-legged furball who is just as sweat as he can be and just a Jack Russell to boot sounds five times as big which dicourages the wannabe salesperson.
Between the nsarling, barking, growling, scratching of the door the wannabe salesperson rarely will stay and decides that what they are selling is not worth facing that monster behind the closed door and the beat feet down the steps to more friendlier enviroments.
So don’t open the door…
By droppedjaw
December 28, 2005 7:35 PM | Link to this
It really boggles my mind that in this day & age there is anyone as naive/ignorant/oblivious or just plain stupid to leave their car anywhere unlocked & running, much less with a child still in it! This guy deserves to have his car stolen for the sheer brainlessness of this act and should thank God that his daughter was not abducted.
By Nikki
December 28, 2005 10:54 PM | Link to this
I thought you were supposed to turn off your car while you put gas in it, anyway. It’s much safer, isn’t it?
By jennifer
December 29, 2005 10:15 AM | Link to this
Det. Rose didn’t say the guy was putting gas in his car. He said he went inside. Maybe he was going to put gas in his car and was pre-paying. Or maybe he was getting something other than gas. It happens.
However, I do agree with what you said about not leaving your car running let alone with children inside. What an idiot. I’m glad no one was hurt and I’m glad his children are ok. I wonder what his wife did to him when he told her he left the children in a running vehicle that was stolen. You didn’t get any domestic violence calls on that one, did you Det. Rose? lol
The one I really love to hear is from people who live out in the boonies/woods. They say they don’t have to lock their cars or their homes. Good one. Yeah.
By Carrie
December 29, 2005 11:32 AM | Link to this
Can someone answer a question for me (preferably someone with law enforcement experience)- I have a debate with a coworker. If someone has committed a crime and is running from the police aren’t the police trained to always shoot to kill if they pull their weapons?
By Bill Wise CPP
December 29, 2005 11:40 AM | Link to this
Unfortunately, all too often, robbers get into a business due to bad back door security. Security policy should forbid the opening of the back door after dark and require the business manager to supervise all use of back doors by employees.
Good security procedures reduce the exposure to robbery and makes it harder to steal business inventory and supplies.
By spambait2
December 31, 2005 9:37 PM | Link to this
jennifer, it’s true you can’t leave your doors unlocked anywhere nowadays, but it wasn’t so long ago that you could. I grew up in Boone NC, and when we first moved there, nobody locked doors. One of the reasons my parents moved to western NC (we had lived in StL and Memphis prior to it) was because it was a much better and safer place to raise a family. It wasn’t until the mid-1970s that people there started locking doors.
By Debra
January 4, 2006 9:56 AM | Link to this
I agree with not leaving your car running also. What about not leaving the car running with children in it to prevent them from knocking it into gear, crashing into something or someone, maybe injuring or killing themselves or someone else. What if you just don’t leave your keys in the car period!
By c. Jenkins
January 5, 2006 6:52 PM | Link to this
We live in a very rural area, 3 acres from the road. We seldom lock our door or car because we have 5 very dedicated, very large 4-legged security guards that are not penned up. Even people who know us will not get out of their car until we come to the door to see who is here.
By Shell
January 6, 2006 9:13 AM | Link to this
Answer to Carrie: While simply running is not cause for a police officer to shoot someone, if forced by circumstances to use their weapons they are trained to aim for the largest part of the body (called “center mass”) in order to ensure the highest probability of a hit. (In fact, anyone who owns and practices with a handgun does the same.) The fact that this target area includes the heart means that a killing shot is what they’re after, whether they admit it to civilians or not. In the heat of the moment, trying to “shoot to wound” either with a handgun or a long arm is a fool’s exercise, the target areas are too small for anyone but a Hollywood cop to hit. If they’ve the time to take careful aim with a long arm, though,, a disabling shot may be feasible. It depends on the situation.
By John
January 7, 2006 2:22 PM | Link to this
Carrie, In your hypothetical, you don’t say whether the crime is “serious” or not. There are no simple answers. Every situation is different, but I was always trained by senior officers to use common sense and good judgement. I was told to imagine myself explaining my actions to a judge and jury in open court. If my actions were judged to be reasonable under the totality of the circumstances and in the context of established law, then I wouldn’t get in trouble. All the rules/procedures boil down to this “test of reasonableness”.
It depends on what the officer knows when the incident is happening. In some cases, an officer may shoot. Certainly, the simple act of running away does not justify the taking of another’s life. An officer may take out his/her weapon without being required to shoot. Sometimes it’s done to intimidate, sometimes to be ready to shoot, usually a combination of both. When shooting, regular patrol officers are taught to aim at center of mass to stop the forward motion of the attacker (usually toward the officer) and to maximize the chances of a hit. With adrenaline pumping, it’s rare that an officer actually hits center of mass, even when standing within a few feet of the offender. SWAT officers have more training where they learn to make head-shots with a sniper rifle, but this kind of precision shooting is mostly fiction.
Bottom Line if an officer shoots, he/she is trained to aim at center of mass, which is intended to “stop” the offender, but is usually lethal. If you shoot, be prepared to explain why you killed another human being. Very heavy stuff.
By gwen
January 8, 2006 9:35 AM | Link to this
On the guy leaving the keys AND kids in the car—stupid, stupid, stupid. Glad his kids are ok—too bad he can’t be charged with child endangerment!
On the leaving cars unlocked—I grew up in rural Ga.—we not only left cars unlocked but seldom locked our doors at night until the mid-70’s when a lady down the road was beaten and robbed!