Spinning Your Wheels: Police caught a burglar in the act last week after he got stuck in his own crime scene. A man called police to his north Charlotte house once he saw a suspect trying to steal from him. The suspect backed a pickup truck into the victim’s yard, close to where a hot-water heater and some doors were leaning against his house. The suspect put the heater into the back of his truck and tried to drive away. It had been raining for some time, however, so the truck spun out. He got out and tried to put the doors under his tires to gain traction, but still got nowhere. When police arrived, the man was still in the yard trying to get his truck out.
Saucy Surprise: A 22-year-old woman called police after her home in the University area was vandalized once again. The woman told officers that someone threw ketchup (or catsup, as the officer who filed the report called it) all over the side of her house for the third time this year, she said. Each time, she has had to pay $200 for someone to clean it.
Identity Crisis: A 23-year-old west Charlotte woman filed a police report last week after realizing that someone has been assuming her identity every time that person is arrested. The woman has been arrested in Georgia eight times for forgery over the last 10 years, even serving jail time. Every time she’s arrested she uses the Charlotte woman’s name and social security number. A positive end to the story: The victim finally realized why she’d been having a hard time getting a job lately.
Nut Job: Police responded to a domestic disturbance in the University area and found an abusive boyfriend had unleashed on his unsuspecting girlfriend. The woman told officers that the man had punched her twice in the head with a closed fist because she used her hand to squeeze his groin area. The woman was taken to the hospital with minor injuries, and the man was arrested for assault on a female.
Play Money: A child at Merry Oaks Elementary School found herself in the middle of some serious business last week after bringing to school a counterfeit $20 bill that she found in her neighborhood. When the student was caught with the bill, which had been printed from a computer, a Secret Service agent was called in to “conduct a small investigation.” Apparently, the small child wasn’t a threat to the Treasury Department because no charges were filed. The agent took the printed money back to her office to destroy it (or try it in the soda machine).
Threat of the Week: A generous man wrote an email to a 42-year-old woman last week that read, “My gift to you is to let you and your child live.”
Blotter items are chosen from the files of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department.
This article appears in Mar 13-19, 2013.
