* The Pits: After deciding to put her pit-bull puppy up for sale, a Charlotte woman expected to get a couple of callers expressing interest. She got that and more when one pit-bull fanatic called the woman and threatened to blow her house up if she didn’t sell him the puppy. Blowing off the call as a prank, the woman simply hung up the phone. The threat wasn’t taken so lightly, however, when the smell of smoke woke the woman at 4am to discover that her house had been set ablaze.
* Talk About Dumb: A man was arrested for shoplifting last week at a local convenience store. He entered the store and eventually brought a six-pack of beer to the counter and paid for it. Then, for unknown reasons, the man decided to steal an extra can of beer, tucking it into his shirt while walking out of the store. Smooth.
* Liner Notes: While in the process of moving out of his home, a Charlotte man discovered that the liner in his fish pond had been stolen. The man believes the plot to steal his fish pond liner occurred on the night he was not at the house he was moving out of. His absence, he surmises, provided the perfect opportunity to remove the fish pond liner from his backyard and sneak off undetected.
* Self-Reliance Backfires: During a late night shift, a drunken man stumbled into a convenience store and headed for the snack aisle. Finding a bag of chips that struck his fancy, he opened the bag and chowed down. Needing something to wet his palate, the man then headed to the beer display and selected his choice of brew. He then popped the top and guzzled the beer. When confronted several times by the store employee, the man belligerently refused to pay for the items and attempted to leave. Police were called and arrested the man for shoplifting.
* Shopping Spree: Last week a shoplifter was apprehended at a local discount department store after trying to get away with over $1,060 worth of merchandise. The apprehending employee said he had seen the thief enter the store and then spend more than two hours selecting over a hundred items and placing them into a shopping cart. Once the cart was full, the thief pushed it into the garden center and straight out into the parking lot. The thief wasn’t quick enough to get away clean, however, and was soon detained, presumably as a result of the time wasted trying to load the stolen goods into his car.
* Constructive Theft: A forklift valued at about $20,000 was lifted from a local construction site. A construction company spokesman said it’s possible that the neighborhood kids who had been driving it for fun could have been the culprits. Nearby neighborhood tree houses and forts were searched but the lift was nowhere to be seen.
* Family Values: Police arrived in response to a family dispute. A 13-year-old boy had brandished a knife with the intent of cutting his older brother. When his mother tried to take the knife, she was cut on her finger. The mother informed police that she wanted her son out of the house and expected police to take him away. When police informed the woman that she was responsible for him until he was 18, she “went stomping mad back into the house and stated thanks for your help anyway, you are no longer needed.” *
This article appears in May 8-14, 2002.
