Sunk by the Sink: Last week a local inn found itself immersed in a watery mess. One of its irresponsible guests checked out of the inn and, either by mistake or out of malice, left the water running in the sink of the vacated room. It is unclear as to how long the water was left running, but it was long enough to cause over $1,000 worth of damage to the room including water damage to the carpet and other flood damage. The housekeeping crew discovered the waterlogged room and reported the mess.
Hunter or the Hunted?: A local sportsman arrived at his favorite hunting spot to find that someone had already been there. The man discovered that someone had climbed to the top of an undisclosed tree and had removed the hunter’s deer stand. Also missing were the mineral and salt blocks that the man had placed at the base of the same tree. The hunter told police that his deer stand had been up in that tree for a month and a half and was very difficult to see from the ground. In essence, someone would have to have been hunting for it.
Home Wrecker: When a woman went to check on a house she had recently rented out, she found what seemed to be intentional damage to almost every room. The person who had rented the house had just moved out, apparently in a rather hostile manner, and left the place a complete mess. There were several holes in the walls, water damage and holes in the ceiling, the banister was completely torn out, door frames were cracked, large chunks of linoleum were removed from one of the floors, large stains of red juice and other substances were all over the carpeting, the garage door was dented in and they even took the woman’s lawn mower. All in all, the damage racked up to about $10,000 — not including the missing lawn mower valued at $150.
Ditched: A Charlotte woman reported to police that someone had stolen three of her bikes which were left outside on her deck. None of the bikes were secured and nothing else was damaged or missing. After the report was filed and the officers left, the woman called police again several hours later to report that the missing bikes had been found. Whoever took them decided to dump them in a ditch near the woman’s house.
Smashing Pumpkins, Part II: Some tricksters decided to have a little game of pumpkin toss last week resulting in damage to a man’s SUV. It appears that someone threw a pumpkin off a balcony onto the roof of the SUV parked down below. The SUV owner believes that it was thrown from one of the upper balconies since the pumpkin-damage to his car was rather extensive.
Just Plain Odd: A peculiar shoplifter was apprehended after being caught red-handed behaving in a rather odd and very illegal manner. This shoplifter was seen opening a bag of candy and eating the contents while walking through the store. The shoplifter also selected two light bulbs from a display and placed one into each of her front pockets. Apparently this was all the shoplifter needed and so she headed out the door without paying for either the candy or the pocketed light bulbs.
That’s A Lot of Jerky: Another odd selection for a theft occurred last week at a local convenience store. Someone was able to break into the back storage area of a convenience store and load over $1,000 worth of beef jerky into a trash can. The thieves then rolled the trash can into their car and drove away with enough of the hardy snack to last well into the next century.
Sign Of The Times: It seems that someone doesn’t particularly care for the real estate signs that one woman has been placing in her yard. The woman called police last week when she saw that the real estate sign she placed in her front yard had been set on fire. This is the third incidence of these signs being set ablaze, leaving the frazzled woman without a clue as to who would do such a thing.
Blotter items are chosen from the files of the Charlotte Police Department.
This article appears in Nov 6-12, 2002.
