The Blotter: Think Before You Shoot 

Self Protection A police officer was shocked to almost witness a man shoot his wife to death in Cornelius last week, and the man was probably even more shocked to learn what had happened. The man had apparently pulled his motorcycle into an alley in front of his house when he saw a car pull into the alley on the other side. The car continued to drive toward him without slowing down, so he puled his gun and aimed it directly at the windshield. An officer doing rounds in the neighborhood saw the man pointing the gun and exited his own vehicle. It was soon found that the car was driven by the man's wife, who saw her husband but planned to pull into the driveway before she reached him so didn't think to slow down until she had a pistol pointed at her. As shaken up as she was, the woman decided not to press charges, as both parties agreed it was an innocent miscommunication.

Dreadful Reaction A 29-year-old couple called police after they were assaulted following a road rage incident in east Charlotte last week. The man told police they were driving down Independence Boulevard when they realized that someone in a neighboring car was giving them the middle finger. When they realized the finger-flipping suspects were continuing to follow them onto Albemarle Road, the couple pulled over, which they soon regretted. The suspects in the other car got out and immediately began spraying the female passenger with mace and then pulled a dreadlock from the male driver's head.

Just Stop, Period Employees at Trans Tech Charlotte Diesel Driving School in west Charlotte were alarmed to arrive at work one morning to find that their business had been vandalized by someone who was into disturbing imagery. Upon arrival on Wednesday morning, employees immediately noticed that someone had spraypainted the word "Pussy" in red across the wall of the business' main building. They then came around the warehouse to see that someone had also spraypainted the word "Bloody" on the wall of one of the trailers.

Good Plan A college student in custody of campus security near Johnson and Wales University learned last week that he can't rely on his buddies to pull an Ocean's Eleven caper to break him out. Security personnel filed a police report with the CMPD stating that they had received a call earlier in the night from someone pretending to be with CMPD claiming they were looking for someone the security company had with them and was hoping they could release the suspect to the so-called police officer. The rat was quickly sniffed out and security turned to the real CMPD.

Con Kids Reports have begun rolling in accusing a child or children in west Charlotte of swindling folks out of money last year under the pretense of a school fundraiser. On Jan. 11, a 43-year-old woman living near the airport reported that a child had come to her door selling products for a school fundraiser in October. The woman selected pizza and gave the kid a check, which was later cashed. The woman went to police when she realized no pizza was coming. The next day, two more people living in the same area filed separate reports stating that a child had knocked on their doors in October selling cookies to fund a school project. All three victims paid $17 but never received any pizza or cookies.

Grand Slam The tennis courts are closed late at night in Spring Lake in east Charlotte, but that wasn't stopping one committed resident from gaining access one night last week. Police responding to calls about an apparent car wreck just after midnight found that someone had run off the road and through the fence of the tennis court, doing $1,000 in damage. The driver fled the scene, leaving the vehicle on the court with a score of love.

Try Again Tomorrow Police responded to Franklin Fast Stop in west Charlotte after a man came into the store and told a clerk he had been robbed. When officers arrived, they found the alleged 23-year-old victim to be so intoxicated that he couldn't tell them what had happened. According to the report, "after several attempts to gather the facts of this incident the victim was told to call back once he sobered up if he wanted to file a report."

Fail It's not uncommon for accused criminals who have been ordered to wear electronic monitoring devices as part of their pre-trial release agreement to cut the anklets off in an attempt to shake the watchful eyes of the CMPD, but one man in northwest Charlotte couldn't even get past the anklet. Police received an alert that the suspect had possibly removed his monitoring device and went to pay him a visit to be sure. Upon finding him, they discovered that he had cut certain pieces out of the device in an attempt to remove it, but wasn't able to do so, making him all the more easier to find. He was charged with damaging city property and taken back to jail.

Threats of the Week Employees at a north Charlotte store called police after a man threatened to smoke them out of their smoke shop last week. The manager filed a report stating that someone became angry in his store and said he would come back and burn the place down, which would only be the right ending for a store that called Hickory Grove Discount Tobacco.