View from the cop: Crime & punishment
View from the Cop is moving to a new site on Wordpress. Blogger Steve Rose of the Sandy Springs Police Department gives his take on crime, offers safety tips and give his weekly picks from the police blotter. Follow Steve Rose to the new blog site.
AJC.com > Metro > View from the cop > Archives > 2007 > July
July 2007
A tube socks ‘n’ air guitar vacation
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Every few weeks one needs a week at the beach—and not the drink, or the drink alone, but the R and R of doing nothing.
Such was the case last Thursday through the weekend for Detective Sandy and me. We made our Panama City trip, the same one we’ve made for years. Although the big high-rise condos are replacing the old sand-worn motels on the beach, the redneck factor is still there, evident by last call at Spinnakers and Club La Vela. The trail of drunk “Whoooeeeeee’s” stretch for a quarter mile.
The old Treasure Island Motel, located around the curve on Thomas Drive, is gone, replaced by the Treasure Island mega high-rise condo with weird orange paint. Fortunately Schooners, the last local beach bar, was still there and although more refined than it used to be, they still fire the cannon at sunset, signaling the beginning of the night’s entertainment, including the redneck air-guitar improv and later on, the hit-the-guy-on-the-scooter contest.
West of Panama City there are very cool places to go. We drove Hwy 98 a few miles out and found Rosemary Beach. If you go there, take your bikes. It’s perfect for riding and spending money buying clothes with “Rosemary Beach” embroidered on them. It was established way back in 1995 by “New Urbanism folks” who survived the dot-com crashes with a few million to spare.
Rosemary Beach is very scenic with an old town centralized for maximum spending. As you drive through Rosemary Beach and exit on the western end of it, look left and you’ll see the weirdest looking house. It’s shaped like a new version of Jules Verne’s submarine, only 10 times bigger. My friend who lives in the area said it’s owned by the Hilton family. Construction has been going on for a couple of years. Unfortunately, you can only view it from afar.
We found no rednecks in Rosemary Beach so I took off my old dirty Lynyrd Skynyrd ball cap and replaced it with my cleaner Lynyrd Skynyrd ball cap and walked into what appeared to be a very nice eating establishment called the Onano Neighborhood Café. I was prepared to refine my appearance, at least as long as it took to eat. I neatly tucked my wife-beater in my Wal-Mart gym shorts and pulled my tube socks up allowing full view of my fairly new Corona flip-flops, and we strolled in.
The matridee approached and asked if we had reservations. I replied “No, we’re fully committed for this lunch” which, I thought was funny as hell but judging from the look I received, our matridee was a bit humor-challenged. Either that, or he noticed that the stripes on my tube socks were of two different colors.
We would not dine in Rosemary Beach that day but we continued riding bikes until we loaded up and headed west towards Sandestin.
As you enter Sandestin, on the right is the Grand Boulevard Mall area. We were on the way to visit our friends and running a bit early so we pulled in. People in Rosemary Beach probably shop at Grand Boulevard because I saw no rednecks. I was forced to go into local Publix, buy a “Destin” hat with an embroidered fish skeleton smoking a cigar, obviously meaning that people here were cool. I took off the wife beater and replaced it with a gray t-shirt with blue and orange designs of an old Woodie car, rigged out with a surf board on top and the words “Surf Destin” on the bottom. For effect, I removed the tube socks and went commando with the flip flops. Refusing to conform completely, I left the shirt tail out. That was the only occasion during the weekend that I dressed up.
It was a good long weekend but now it’s Monday and I’ve got a ton of phone messages. More on that later.
Kindergarten — no, make it preschool — cop
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Hi, kids. We brought the police car and thought you’d like to climb in it and look at the radio and — (many hands in the air waving).
Before I can select one of the 20 hands in the air, the questions begin.
— Have you ever shot anyone?
— My name is Ricky. My mom says the police only put bad people in jail. My sister is bad. I can have her here in 10 minutes. Can you take her?
— My dad says that you’ll lock me up if I don’t eat my vegetables. Why would you do that? Have you ever eaten them? Yuk.
— They said you were going to bring a helicopter.
— You don’t look as cool as the guy on CSI.
— My uncle said you guys would bring donuts and not to tell you his name. His name is Bobby.
— Have you ever shot anyone?
— Hey officer, it’s me, Ricky again. What did you decide about my sister?
— My mom has some handcuffs in her sock drawer.
— My uncle says you don’t have to take the drunk-test.
— Do you have a dog?
— My mom says if we have a problem we can ask the police. My problem is my sister.
— Have you been on “C.O.P.S.”?
— I was told there would be a helicopter.
— So, if people don’t take the drunk-test, how do they become drunks?
— Have you ever shot anyone?
— Don’t tell my Uncle Bobby I told you his name. His last name is Richards — just don’t tell anyone.
— My sister is over there on the playground. She can’t run fast. You can probably catch her.
— I know what the emergency number is. It’s 911. I call it every day and tell them I like the police. They tell me they like me too and then they ask me to hang up.
— Go ahead and lock me up but I hate carrots.
Finally, the two-minute attention span has passed and the kids get to climb in the back seat of the car and look past the cage to the computers, and then slide out so the next group can slide in. A group picture is taken with the officer, the teacher and 15 kids, seven of them with their fingers in their noses, one crying, and one who just looks happy to be here. Ricky was nice enough to shut the doors for us.
We climbed in the car and when I adjusted the mirror, I saw the top of this little bitty head. I adjusted the mirror to reveal a little girl with a big smile on her face, just looking around.
“Ah, you must be Ricky’s sister.”
Does your purse say ‘steal me’?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I spent some time recently going into grocery stores to see how many women had their purses in the ‘steal me’ spot in the cart and how many of those purses were wide open.
Just about all of the purses were in the cart seat but a good many were zipped up. I found that some shoppers walked 15 to 20 feet away from the cart with their purses wide open and their wallets exposed. We do as much communicating to the public as we can right now, trying to get folks to realize that all of these thefts are dependent on the opportunity to steal. Just closing your purse makes a big, big, difference.
Too many folks are leaving valuables in the car while the car is inside the garage. What the thieves are doing is checking the door to see if it’s unlocked and if it is, they’re coming in and swiping things from the kitchen area counter. Set your alarms and look at installing motion detection outside lights.
Here are some of the incidents reported in the past week:
Robbery
Three men, wearing gray suits, masks, and rubber gloves, came into the south entrance of the Tijuana Joe’s restaurant on Roswell Road, around 12:30 a.m., and robbed employees of just over $2,900 and jewelry. The two victim/witnesses said they were outside the restaurant when a car drove up. The three suspects, one wearing a “Chuckie” masks, got out of the car and forced the employees inside where a third employee was counting the money.
If you own a business, I cannot tell you how important it is to train your closing staff to lock the building down when the money is out of the safe or being counted. These guys looked for the most vulnerable time. They did their homework too. They knew exactly where and when.
Burglary
Sometime between 1 a.m. and 7a.m., someone entered a resident of Duncourtney Drive through an unlocked sliding glass door and took a wallet and a purse from the kitchen counter.
Sometime between 11:15 p.m. and 7 a.m. someone came took a purse from a home on Glencourtney Drive. The victim believes the burglar went into her carport, got a spare house key from her makeup bag in the car and then entered the home.
Someone took an X-Box system and related games, etc. from an apartment on Monterrey Pkwy. The victiim said that he leaves the door unlocked during the day when he’s gone.
Arrests
Roberto Castro, 45, of Alpharetta was arrested for shoplifting $519 in clothing that he stuffed into a duffle bag he brought into a store. Okay, when you bring a duffle bag into a retail store, you might as well set off flares and write “SHOPLIFTER” on your forehead with a Sharpie.
John Mark Karr, age 42, from Sandy Springs, was arrested for Battery and Obstruction of a 911 call. Wexford Karr, age 86, was arrested for Simple Battery relating to the same call.
David Emory Frazier, 33, of Atlanta was arrested and charged with Simple Assault and Disorderly while Under the Influence after Northside security officers called the PD regarding Frazier’s outburst after not being able to smoke a cigarette in the hospital. He was restrained by eight security officers, one who said he was scratched and choked by the suspect.
Other Things A man came into the Sandy Springs Police Department and said he received an e-mail from someone (unknown) who informed him someone had taken out a hit contract on him. The e-mail ordered him to make a cash payment within 72 hours if he wanted to live. The e-mail did not state how the target was supposed to make the payment.
Get off the couch, go to Vegas
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
On the political front, the Milton City Council is seeking therapy. They have hired a shrink to figure out why they can’t get along. The problem: A session with the psychologist isn’t exempt from the state’s Open Meetings Act, so reporters and the public could hear all the stuff.
According to reports, the council is close to a meltdown. The AJC reported that in the seven months of existence, there have been ethics complaints filed against some of the council members, as well as the mayor.
Some residents confided that the mayor has had to issue ‘time out’ punishments more than once. A frustrated city leader said that it’s embarrassing to have to count to ten to get council members to stop arguing during public sessions. He’s considering taking away recess after one council member took away another member’s applesauce.
One council member quipped “I think it’s pretty clear the mayor likes the other members more than me. It’s not fair. I’m going to run away.”
What’s the big deal? Every city, new and old, has problems. John’s Creek has the Love Shack, Lilburn is fighting the evil forces of karaoke and Roswell is running out of cute names for new subdivisions.
How much has the council paid for psychological counseling? $6,400! Wow! Let’s take that money and put it to some real therapy.
You can get airfares to Las Vegas as cheap as $259 round trip on the red-eye. The MGM is offering deals for three-night stays at around $660. As stewards for the taxpayer’s money, council members will have to room together, two by two. Remember, that’s part of the therapy so they’ll have to figure it out.
Let’s see, six council members plus the mayor. Okay, we’ve got an odd number so the mayor bunks in there with one of the roommates. Now we have about $1,980 in hotel costs and $1,813 in travel so we’re up to $3,793. Let’s go with a $100 per diem per member, per day, so add $2,100 and that gives us $5.893 leaving us with about $507 or about $72 each for the tables, slots, or what-not.
Any winnings would have to be donated to the city for a horse statue or something.
The biggest benefit of all is that the trip is not subject to the Open Meetings Act because under some sort of bill pased by former President Bill Clinton, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.
You want more motivation to work it out?
Two words: Fulton County.
I was a hostage for John Mark Karr
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
John Mark Karr was arrested this past weekend.
Unless you’re in a coma you should know this. This isn’t about him. It’s about everything that happened as a result.
I’m the public information officer for the Sandy Springs police department. I got a call from the lieutenant around 1:30 a.m. Saturday. He said John Mark Karr was arrested about midnight and I might get some media calls. I think that’s what he said. I don’t really know. I was in a deep sleep, dreaming something about me, a Viking ship, and a gnome, sitting at the Waffle House, telling me that my fonts were unsatisfactory. I think his name was Sven.
8:00 Saturday morning:
My cell phone starts ringing. I know the numbers of the regular press folks and sure enough, this is one of them. They ask me something about John Mark Karr. Now I remembered that I got a call about Karr and it wasn’t part of the dream—about the gnome—and why would he car eabout my fonts anyway?
I told them I’d get the particulars and get back. Look for an e-mailed press release shortly.
8:35, 37, 40, 45….more calls, all from media. Say goodbye to Saturday morning.
9:15-The press release is done. In an informative way, it says almost nothing. This report was classified as a domestic violence report meaning there isn’t much information that I can release so I made it a point to accentuate the obvious. For example, I confirmed that all parties were human beings.
Next come calls to confirm the information that I’m really not saying anything about in the press release, just in case I left something that says nothing, out of the document.
9:45 I have confirmed that the lack of information that I put in the original release, has enough nothing in it so that I don’t need to add zero information to what already contains very little.
Local reporters now have enough non-information to begin setting up for the noon news reports, trying to figure out how to report the nothing that they got from me. Fortunately, they have 30 hours of file footage to fall back on.
ROUND TWO National Media calls.
The national media calls. Sometimes they want live interviews. MSNBC wants a live interview so they call and ask me if I can stand by for a moment—meaning ten minutes. They put me on hold. This allows me an opportunity to listen to their program while it broadcasts, very loudly, in my phone. I’m in the car which is not the best time for me to talk to anyone much less do a live interview on a national news show but before I can pull over I’m talking to someone with a fabulous name, asking for the sequence of events. They ask me to describe what is happening right about the same time Detective Sandy tells me to turn left. This confused me so I said something like “The officers received a call at the home of I think I was supposed to turn left there.”
For the sake of the interview and trying not to sound like a goober, I drove in a straight line until the end of the interview. I told them nothing in various general descriptive terms, confirming what they already knew and adding things like “A hearing will be set and we’ll go from there” and “The parties involved will be summoned to a hearing on a future date” which tells you about as much as saying “the sun will be available until dark.” The interview went longer than I thought. When it was over I was in Gatlinburg.
After two days of providing an extensive amount of nothing to the national media, including ‘Entertainment Tonight’ and ‘Inside Edition’, who’s only interest was obtaining mug shots and 911-tape, the frenzy was just about over.
The last piece of this story was to provide nothing to the New York Post whose reporter was less than enthusiastic on the phone. I shared his less than excited attitude because after all, I spent most of my weekend on the phone trying to explain nothing in a new and exciting way for each interview all the while trying to get some chores in as well as a brief trip to the outlet mall. None of us really wanted to spend our weekend covering this because after all, it really was more of a non-press-event than news but when people demand to know the details of what I’m not going to tell them, I’m obligated to convey this lack of information to them—sort of.
I will also have you know that this was not done without sacrifice.
For those of you in a particular outlet store Saturday afternoon, I really was in the fitting room and I really was talking to ‘Entertainment Tonight’ on the phone and although I’m sorry I forgot what I was doing when I walked back out of the fitting room in my boxers, there was no need to have me escorted out by security.
PhD not required to understand ‘police’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Everyone else is writing about Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, respected historian from Tufts University. Seems he didn’t know that Kevin Leonpacher, Atlanta Police officer, was a police officer although he was wearing a UNIFORM that said POLICE on it. He said he didn’t know Leonpacher was an officer and, furthermore, jaywalking is not illegal in Britain.
Let’s just say that Felipe didn’t know that Leonpacher was a cop because he didn’t see the badge and the patches that read “ATLANTA POLICE” along with the whole uniform thing and a traffic vest that said “POLICE.”
Have you been downtown around the World Congress Center during conventions? Goobers from all over the place are in town and their minds are on everything from sales calls to the Cheetah, all the while walking in and out of traffic. I’m surprised that more aren’t run over. Aside from the fact that it’s dangerous, jaywalking, especially in heavy traffic (and we’re known to have that) makes the slow traffic even slower.
All of this could have been easily avoided if the professor would just listen to the officer. He was an officer and furthermore I tell you!!—he was easily identifiable as a police officer. The professor just didn’t like being told what to do that day and found out that when the officer tells you not to jaywalk, you might want to listen up.
The professor called the internal investigation incompetent and declared: “My goodwill is not inexhaustible. I’m not going to let this go.”
Give me a break. The professor would be smart to let it fade out. The internal investigation took 101 pages! That’s five trees. Environmentalist should be outraged!
This isn’t Mayberry RFD. The downtown cops have great patience with the convention goobers and to a great extent they go out of their way. Here’s a hint. Stay out of the damn street. Use the crosswalks, and don’t ignore the cop when he tells you not to jaywalk. Life can be simple if you just think for a minute.
Crime & punishment
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Pepper Spray advice: Point it away from you
These are some, but not all, incidents reported to the Sandy Springs Police over the past week:
Robbery
The victim reported someone forced the front of her apartment in the 4500 block of Roswell Road and ransacked the residence. She reported jewelry as well as $3,000 cash taken. Many of our Hispanic victims do not have bank accounts to work with and at times have a considerable amount of cash. Some burglary and robbery patterns strongly suggest that the thieves are targeting by pay days as well as location.
The resident reported that someone came into her home in eh 6800 block of Lisa Land and took her purse. She said that a man who was jogging rang the doorbell around 8 a.m. and then left the purse. She thinks he found it and left in on the doorstep when nobody answered the door. The purse contained credit cards and personal items. The resident said that around 1 a.m. she heard a door open but assumed it was her daughter. She found later that he daughter did not get up during the night. The back door to the home was unlocked and the resident found a rear gate open the next morning.
Theft
Employees of a Kroger store observed three males steal a bottle of wine. The men, who stole one bottle of wine, then ran out of the store and got into a black car, and then drove off. The three witnesses to the theft said they knew the suspects from school. My new book titled: “Stealing Your Way to Wealth on Weekends”* talks about doing a little homework prior to the crime. Such homework would include not stealing at a place where your friends work.
Arrests
Gilbert, Gregory, and Ben were arrested for fighting after the following: Ben was staying with his supposed girlfriend Tiffany. Ben went to sleep. Tiffany strayed over to Gilbert’s room and had sex with him. Following that, he didn’t want her to leave and they began to shout which woke Ben who got more than he bargained for when he said: “Hey! What the hell is going on?” Once he found out what was going on the fight was on. Gregory, who was in Ben’s room, also got involved in the fight and all parties were charged. Who didn’t get charged? Tiffany.
Other Stuff
A 33-year old woman filed a report saying that she has been called twice by a woman who accuses her of having a relationship with her fiancé. The complainant says she has no idea who the woman is.
We have been experiencing some theft from cars parked overnight in commercial areas such as car-repair shops or other locations in business areas. Most of the break-ins involve the removal of the car stereo at the cost of great damage to the dash. They can spend more time working on the theft because noise isn’t as much as a factor as it is in residential areas. It would be a good idea for business owners to take a good look at some of the video resources on the market. For those of you with expensive systems, know that they are a commodity and look at models that are temporarily removable.
*Not a real working title folks..not yet.
Cell phones making us stupider
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Folks, Put your cell phones down a minute. I’ve just figured out something very important!
I don’t think that we are as multi-tasking efficient as we thought we were. We just don’t remember what it was we needed to do, want to do, and even what we did, while we were talking and it all has to do with our cell phones!
This has just happened to me and I need to explain it before I forget, probably again.
Cell phones are making us more stupid than normal. It’s true. We’ve fooled ourselves into thinking that we can multi-task day-to-day activity while talking on the cell phone. It doesn’t matter if you have a Bluetooth or any other dental issue, your cell phone has the ability to make stupid decisions for you while you’re on it.
Here’s the proof. I’m at the fashionable outdoor-outfitting store. I went in to buy a pair of sunglasses and a shirt. That’s it. I got a phone call and I began to talk while shopping. Thirty minutes later I’m in my car with a Kayak, two tents, and a small farm animal. I hung up, looked at all this stuff and I can’t remember how or why I bought it all. Not only that but now I can’t remember who I was talking to on the phone. I had no choice but to lie on the ground in the fetal position—which is awkward in a large parking lot.
Now it makes sense. How many of you have missed your exit while on the cell phone? I have missed my exit by two or more exits, more than once while on the cell phone. Last week I left the office, took a call, then next thing I know I’m in Macon.
It makes no difference, hands free or not.
How many times have you been in a public place, with other people, and some phone-goober is standing there talking on his hands-free like he or she is the only one in the room? Looks rude but the fact is the goober’s brain has been directed only to that phone call.
Just a theory? I don’t think so. Look at all those ugly cars on the road with really ugly paint on it. All around us is the proof. Be careful out there and if you remember nothing else, turn your cell phones off at the hair salons. Just look around.
Joining the iPod nation
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
There are two things that stood out about this weekend. One is that I joined the iPod nation. I had yard work to do so I loaded up with everything from Styx to a little Jethro Tull with some Jimmy Buffett in the middle.
When you load up the music you like, you probably know the words to most of them. “I really do—appreciate, the fact you’re sitting here…..”
You’ve heard these songs hundreds of times so it’s just second nature to sing. “Your voice sounds so wonderful but you face don’t look too clear…”
I’m new to the iPod so I had a period of infatuation with it and I began to sing along. “Barmaid, bring a pitcher, another round of brew…”
I was singing and digging along my little mulch area (so often inspected by little O.C.D. homeowner’s board) and I guess I should have looked up but I never gave it a thought until I blurted it out. “Honey why don’t we get drunk— and screwwwwww.”
Well, it was about the time that I said to myself that I might be singing a little loud to those in my immediate area so I looked up to make sure there was no one in my immediate area and it was there that I saw, in my immediate area, one of our fine neighbor ladies and her daughter who looked to be about five years old. It was awkward.
Sunday is Lake Day. We take the “Who-Cares II” out and about and then spend some serious cove time getting some rays. That’s the routine. The most annoying part of going onto the lake now days is the getting in and getting out. Not the boat, the one who parks the truck and trailer and the one who goes and gets it at the end of the day.
For those of you with boats and especially those who spend time at Lake Lanier, you’ll probably agree with this. We can put a man on the moon, or at least in a hidden secret television studio somewhere in Nevada acting like he’s on the moon, why can’t the Army Corps of Engineers make a dock extendable out to where the water is? The docks have been in the water only a month out of the last three years. During that time you would think they could figure out how to get the docks to the water.
Services »
