The Blotter
Saturday, November 21st, 2009
PEE-DITTY, PART I: An officer was patrolling the area of Courtland Avenue and Ralph McGill Boulevard, when he reported a man “behind the statues on the Northwest corner, urinating on the base of the statue.” The officer asked the man what he was doing. “He stated he was getting his food together. I then asked him what else he was doing and he admitted that he had to urinate and could not hold it in.” (The Blotter Diva googled “statue” and the relevant street names — the man allegedly peed in “Folk Art Park” near the interstate overpass. The public art installation contains works by Southern folk artists R.A Miller and Lonnie Holley, among many others.) The 51-year-old man went to jail on an indecent exposure charge.
PEE-DITTY, PART II: Around 9:45 a.m., a man allegedly started peeing into a cup, while standing on a sidewalk on Marietta Street. An officer told the man to stop — and the man asked if he could finish. The officer wrote, “[The man] advised that he didn’t feel like using the Porter [sic] Potty.” The 54-year-old man went to jail on an indecent exposure charge.
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(Photo Illustration by Tray Butler)
SOUTHERN HOSPITALITY: A passenger reported a Florida man talking strangely on a shuttle bus at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. The man reportedly said this was the third time Delta had made him miss his flight and made him stay overnight in Atlanta and that someone needs to blow up the airport.
SPOOKY VISITOR: A 33-year-old man said he heard the doorbell ring at his home on Euclid Avenue. He saw a woman around age 30 standing outside his door, peering in his windows. He said she had blond dreadlocks and she wore black pants and a high-visibility green traffic vest. According to the man, the woman walked around to the back of his house, then she returned to the front and broke open the front door. The man said he confronted the woman and she tried to give him a piece of paper saying her name was Denise and she was looking for her stolen television. The man said he was going to call police and the woman walked away, threatening that the man’s stuff would get stolen later. The man wrote down the woman’s tag number before she drove away. Police ran a computer check on the tag — it came back on a 2009 Jeep Wrangler stolen in Atlanta. The woman reportedly caused about $500 worth of damage to the man’s front door.
FANCY WINE BROUHAHA: A man with a blondish mohawk and a 20-year-old woman walked into a grocery store on Piedmont Avenue. Store employees say the man went to the wine section and grabbed a $130 bottle of wine. He reportedly handed the wine to the woman and she went to the customer service desk and tried to fraudulently return the wine. Employees told the woman that she couldn’t return the wine — so she left the bottle at the customer service desk. At the same time, employees were quizzing the man about the wine. “Kroger employees ran after [the man] saying they had been robbed,” an officer wrote. The man and woman hopped into a Ford Ranger and drove away. As police arrived, nearby citizens said the Ford Ranger had smashed through a garage security gate at a Buckhead condominium on Peachtree Street.
CATNAP? On Pharr Road, a woman called police to report her cat missing. An officer arrived. The woman said she “has not seen her cat in several days and believes that one of her neighbors inside her apartment complex has kidnapped the cat,” the officer wrote. Also, the woman said the same neighbor confronted her and said she knew the woman has “herperies,” the officer wrote. The woman said she didn’t know how her neighbor could know that information about her. The woman “stated that she previous left her personal phone books outside her apartment on her patio, which is an open area next to a bus stop near [her] apartment,” the officer wrote. “[She] stated she found a small knife laying on her patio table when she returned to pickup her telephone book. When I inquired about the knife, [the woman] got the knife from her kitchen drawer and showed the knife to me.” The woman said she thinks her neighbor has it out for her. The officer couldn’t locate the suspected neighbor. The woman insisted on filing a police report.
CRANKY MOMMA: A police officer responded to a call about a dispute on Pineview Terrace. “This was the fifth time since [2:30 p.m.] I had responded to this address regarding this caller and the ninth time since 10 a.m. the suspect had called 911,” the officer noted.
WISHFUL THINKING: An officer saw a man on the Freedom Parkway ramp to I-75/85. The man reportedly was walking back and forth, asking for money from drivers. Apparently, as the officer circled around, the man moved to the Ellis Street ramp. “[He] had previously fled from me into the Auburn Avenue area, so I snuck up behind him and took him into custody without incident,” the officer wrote. “[The man] said I must be following him and that his uncle in the FBI was watching traffic cameras in the area, so once Mayor Shirley Franklin was fired for ‘taking that money’ all the police would be fired and they would close the jail.” The officer arrested the 49-year-old man and he “was transported to jail, which remains open.”
BIG DAY WITH BJ: A man said he and his wife were kidnapped at gunpoint one morning — and they were forced to get in a blue van and held in Piedmont Park until almost 11 p.m., when the man escaped. He said the kidnappers still had his wife — and he was able to escape because the alleged kidnappers, BJ and another guy, slapped him and got distracted when a police car drove by.
POO-POO TO YOU: On Garson Drive, a 29-year-old woman said she left her apartment at 9:05 a.m. to go to work. She said when she opened the front door, she found a bag of dog waste sitting there. She said the bag of dog waste wasn’t there when she came home the night before. She wanted a police report, just in case the dog waste incidents continue in the future.
CARBONATED REVENGE: A woman said someone poured soda all over her car and left a note, while it was parked at Peachtree Center. The note read: “Dear Asshole, I listened to your piece of shit alarm going off all day yesterday and today and I’m sick and tired of it. Either get it fixed or park somewhere else.” The woman said her car alarm did have a problem.
HERE COMES SANTA CLAUS: A suspicious package turned up at the Central Library downtown. The reporting officer wrote: “The witness [Mr. Santa Claus] noticed a black backpack left unattended for over one hour in front of the library.” The witness named Santa Claus is a 57-year-old man, according to the report. The officer evacuated the library and set up a perimeter around the suspicious package. A SWAT team and firefighters arrived on the scene. “The item was determined not to be a threat,” the officer wrote. Eventually, the backpack’s owner showed up and claimed it. “Inside the suspicious package were clothes and miscellaneous items, which were returned to him,” the officer wrote. The owner said he put the backpack down so he could smoke a cigarette — then he walked to Broad Street to get something to eat. He said he had planned to return later for his backpack. Police declared the area safe, and people were allowed to re-enter the library.
SANTA’S SNACKTIME? A 22-year-old woman said she returned from a weekend getaway and realized someone had been inside her apartment on New Town Circle. The suspect(s) reportedly broke a rear window to get inside. “It appears that they sat on [the woman's] couch and ate several of her Hot Pockets and Chips Ahoy cookies,” an officer wrote. According to the police report, 12 cheese Hot Pockets were gone, along with five packs of Chips Ahoy cookies. Nothing else was reported stolen.
WEIRD WEB: A woman said she got into an argument with her ex-boyfriend, nicknamed “Spiderman.” She said her ex-boyfriend got mad because she wouldn’t give him any more of her pain pills. She said he pushed her out of her wheelchair, twisted her arm, and slapped her face. The incident reportedly happened in a parking lot on Decatur Street. Apparently, her ex-boyfriend fled before police arrived. She said “Spiderman” wore a black shirt and dark-colored jeans with spider designs. (He is 30 years old.) Medics took her to Grady Memorial Hospital.
PLEASED TO MEAT YOU: At a grocery store on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, an employee said a man put several sausages in his handbag. Police searched the 57-year-old man and allegedly found 11 smoked sausages (worth $40). He was arrested for shoplifting.
HAUNTED HEAD? At a cell phone store on Peachtree Street, the manager called police and said a strange man refused to leave and demanded a replacement phone, but he had no ID. Police officers found the man down the street. The man “apologized and thanked us several times, but continued to back away,” the officer wrote. Police eventually caught him and pepper-sprayed him. “As we were trying to apply restraints [the man] tried to bite our hands …” an officer wrote. “[The man] made several rambling statements about being a minister, playing for the Cowboys, being friends with [Dallas Cowboys quarterback] Tony Romo, and stated he was going to bring us lobsters.” Police found three small baggies of suspected marijuana in his pockets. The man, age 22, went to jail.
THE SKY IS FALLING: At Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, a California man said he was looking at an arrival/departure screen on Concourse B, when something struck him in the forehead. An officer investigated and determined that the object that hit the man was a small, white, round object. It apparently fell from a light fixture above him. The man complained of a forehead injury and medics treated him. He refused to go to a hospital because he had a flight to catch.
SUSPICIOUS MINDS, PART 1: A 69-year-old woman hosted a bridge game at her home on Beaver Falls Place. She said a bridge club partner threatened to slap her face, among other verbal threats. According to the police report, the suspect apparently believes the 69-year-old woman is having an affair with her ex-husband. While police were there, the suspect and her ex-husband showed up. The suspect, a 68-year-old woman, “appeared upset but not violent.” They had come from a doctor’s appointment where the doctor recommended that the 68-year-old get psychological help. Police advised the suspect not to return to the woman’s home on Beaver Falls Place and to make an appointment for her anger issues.