Sweet and Low: A middle-aged apartment dweller discovered that someone had cut the brake lines and poured sugar in the gas tank of his truck. The incident happened while the truck was parked outside his apartment.
No Wedding Invite For You: A young man got into a verbal confrontation with his girlfriend’s stepfather while they were in the older man’s front yard. The argument escalated, and the hothead boyfriend struck the stepfather in the face, then fled the scene.
She’s A Shopliftin’ Momma: A grocery store manager saw a female customer in the baby food aisle “looking around and acting suspicious.” As the manager continued to watch, the customer took three cans of baby formula from the shelf, then walked to a register where she paid for a pack of noodles. After the purchase, the woman said she had forgotten something and returned to the baby food aisle, where she slipped a can of formula into her purse, then tried to leave the store without paying. As employees stopped her, she put up a struggle and caused a scene. Once they got the shoplifter into the store office, they found eight cans of stolen baby formula inside her bag with a total value of $99.92.
A Room With A View: While sitting in his bedroom, a man watched as two men approached his car, smashed out the rear passenger window, and removed several items from his car, including clothes and CDs. When the man ran outside to confront the smash-and-grabbers, they dropped the stolen items and ran off in opposite directions.
Is That a Drill in Your Pants: A man was apprehended and arrested in the parking lot of a home improvement store after he shoplifted an 18-volt Dewalt Heavy Duty XRP Drill valued at $269.
Slingshot Shenanigans: A young woman had her beauty sleep rudely interrupted when both her bedroom and living room windows were broken with a small rock. The woman believes a slingshot may have been used to execute the vandalism.
Burning Love: After being told by her boyfriend that he wanted her to leave his house, a woman became irate and tried to burn her dismissive lover with a lit cigarette. The man told police he believes she would have burned him if he hadn’t grabbed her arm and forced her away.
Animal House: A man called police in the middle of the night when he heard his roll-out garbage container being overturned and “loud banging” going on. Police determined that the trash-loving vandal was probably a raccoon.
Blotter items are chosen from the files of the Charlotte Police Department.
This article appears in Mar 23-29, 2005.
