THEFT OF THE WEEK: Someone with extraordinary thievery skills stole 200 linear feet of a six-foot-high chain link fence. The fence was installed in the ground and surrounded a construction site. It covered two city blocks and is valued at $2000.
NO HOTMAIL HERE: Someone called police to report that someone had burned his mailbox. The fire burned out due to it being a metal mailbox.
RUDE AWAKENING: A mother and her son were on a city bus recently, when all of a sudden the bus made an abrupt turn. The woman’s son, who was sleeping at the time, was thrown from his seat and smacked into an adjacent seat and busted his nose. The driver stopped the bus and the woman demanded that the driver take them to the hospital.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK: If you go to the police about what I’m doing, I’ll throw you off the third story balcony.
WOULD YOU LIKE A RECEIPT?: Someone must either have a fat bank account, or a really good screwdriver, because, according to police reports, they took $31,640 from an ATM early one morning.
WHAT-CHU SAY ABOUT A HOE?: A boyfriend and his girlfriend got into a fight recently that erupted when he insulted her. Whatever he said must have been awful, because she grabbed an undisclosed garden tool and bashed him in the head with it.
GYM FLIM-FLAM: A man received a letter in the mail from a collection agency regarding a delinquent account in his name at a fitness center. The agency claimed that the amount owed was $1229.18, but could not tell him exactly which fitness center it was.
CHARGED UP: A man argued with a salesman over the car battery that he had just bought. When things weren’t going his way during the argument, he whipped out a small knife and held it to the salesman’s throat.
HAMBURGLARS: At 7:51 in the evening, a man walked into a grocery store and walked out with $40 worth of meat under his arm. Store employees were unable to catch him. At 10:31 that same evening, another man walked in and walked out with $30 of meat under his arm. He too was able to get away.
WORD TO THE WISE: While sifting through car theft after car theft, beating after beating, car break-in after car break-in, and stalking after stalking each week when doing The Blotter, I always keep an eye out for anything alarming. This week I noticed an inordinate amount of identity thefts. Be careful out there, people.
Blotter items are chosen from the files of the Charlotte Police Department.
This article appears in Apr 14-20, 2004.
