Fresh Loaf

“I requested the air unit for assistance but I was advised they were furloughed tonight.”

Those chilling words are from the police incident report written by APD Officer Nicholas F. Parete after Monday’s robbery and shooting of Georgia Tech student Patrick Whaley outside his apartment near campus. A Georgia Tech police officer spotted the suspects, but lost track of them when they ditched their stolen car and ran behind houses near the campus.

“Let’s not lose sight of the fact that ultimately it is the level of crime that is important, not the number of police officers.”

And those chilling words are from a February 12, 2009 AJC opinion column written by Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin.

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TROUBLE ON WISTERIA LANE: A middle-aged woman said her car alarm went off around midnight on Wisteria Lane. She said she went outside and saw someone running away in the distance. She has “high suspicion” of the suspect’s identity — a man known as “Pooh.” (And Pooh is described as a man about 6-feet-2-inches tall with short hair.) She said Pooh is a known person who breaks into cars and houses in the area. Police lifted two sets of fingerprints from the woman’s Cadillac.

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(Illustration by Tray Butler)

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PEBBLES GOES BAM-BAM: A 23-year-old woman said someone damaged her truck between midnight and 12:45 a.m. outside her apartment on Roswell Road. “There were dents in the front driver’s door, the driver’s side rearview mirror was damaged, and the fuel door was also damaged,” an officer wrote. “Someone had written, in what appeared to be lipstick, ‘Bitch ass [racial slur]’ and ‘Fuck U’ on the driver’s side windows.” The 23-year-old said she suspects her child’s father’s ex-girlfriend, “Pebbles,” who works at Strokers and Blazing Saddles.

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(Illustration by Tray Butler)

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HARD TIME STAYING CLEAN? At a pharmacy on Cascade Road, the manager said a man was caught stealing three boxes of Tylenol PM. “He was known for shoplifting soap from the store and has been arrested in the past for shoplifting,” an officer wrote. Apparently, the employees know him as the “Soap Man.” On this day, the Soap Man “was observed walking to the soap aisle and bypassed the soap and continued to aisle 11, the medication aisle,” the officer noted. An employee reportedly stopped the man and recovered the Tylenol PM. But apparently Soap Man left the store before police arrived. Soap Man is described as a 37-year-old man wearing a gray coat.

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(Illustration by Tray Butler)

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LOOSING BETTY BOOP, PART I: A 26-year-old woman said she was walking to the bus stop at Cerro Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Drive when she heard a car drive up behind her — and suddenly, the car’s lights went out. The woman said she looked at the time and started running because she didn’t want to miss the bus. She said she was almost to the corner when she heard a man behind her. She turned and said, “You scared me.” The man reportedly said, “Give me your bag.” The woman said she didn’t have anything. The man reportedly said, “I’m going to shoot you.” She said, “Here, take the bag.” Her bag is a purple Betty Boop backpack, which contained her nursing set for school (worth $100). The nursing set includes a stethoscope, blood pressure cuffs, and a penlight, a Nikon digital camera and a drug guidebook. She said the man ran away — and she never actually saw a gun.

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(Illustration by Tray Butler)

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YOUR CHEATIN’ HEART, PART I: A 54-year-old man said he lives with his common-law wife on Welch Street. “Last night, he came home with a lady friend and [the common-law wife] became upset,” the officer wrote. “He thought she would get over him bringing over this friend by today. He explained how she hit him today with a lamp on his left arm. He didn’t have any visible injury.” So the officer talked to the common-law wife. “She admitted she hit him with the lamp, but [said] he had no right bringing another woman into their house,” the officer wrote. The common-law wife was charged with domestic violence and went to jail.

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(Illustration by Tray Butler)

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HANGING ON THE TELEPHONE: A 36-year-old man said he returned to his apartment and noticed that someone had kissed his door seven times. “This was known as the perpetrator was wearing lipstick at the time and the lip prints were clearly visible on the door,” an officer wrote. “The victim had photographed the lip prints using his cellular phone and displayed the picture for me.” The man said seven days later, he started getting lots of calls from a private number. He said he answered one call and a male voice asked over and over: “Do you want to suck my dick?” Five days later, more calls came from the private number. The man said he answered a call and a male voice repeated, “Do you want to suck my dick?” The man said the caller appears to be disguising his voice and has a possible Middle Eastern accent. The man has no idea who is making the obscene calls.

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RATTLED: Little Five Points resident Kyle Keyser says his Dec. 17 mugging reflects how brazen Atlanta crime has become.

On Dec. 17, local video producer and blogger Kyle Keyser stopped at the Pizza Hut on North Avenue to pick up a late dinner for his roommate’s boss. Five men stood outside the pizza joint. One asked Keyser if he’d buy him some food. Keyser, sympathetic to the man’s hunger, said sure.

But the restaurant was closed, and as Keyser returned to his car, the five men surrounded him and pushed him against a nearby vehicle. One shoved a gun to his neck. They demanded money. Keyser said he didn’t have any but handed over his ATM card.

The men took Keyser’s cell phone and wallet and ordered him to lie on the ground. One suspect, pistol in hand, took aim.

“I’m gonna shoot him,” Keyser recalls the suspect saying. “I’m gonna shoot this motherfucker.”

“Don’t shoot him,” pleaded the guy who Keyser had offered to buy food.

“Naw,” the gunman said, “I’m gonna shoot him in the leg.”

Keyser, face down on the pavement, braced himself for a bullet. Instead, he saw five pairs of sneakers walk off. He sensed he had an exit, jumped in his car, and sped toward Midtown to call the police. He says bank receipts show the suspects purchased food with his card at a gas station a block away.

“OK, people get mugged and asked for money,” says Keyser, whose house has been broken into twice. “There’s a certain amount of crime that you associate with living in the city. It’s not forgivable, but it’s understood. You know it’s going to happen. What concerns me now is the spike in violent crime.”

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(Photo by Joeff Davis)

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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.

Also, at a grocery store on Metropolitan Parkway, the manager said a man dressed entirely in black put several packages of sliced ham into his bag and tried to leave the store. Police allegedly found $13 worth of Carolina ham in his bag. He was arrested for shoplifting.

Get your sneak peek at this week’s Blotter here.

(Illustration by Tray Butler)

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THE INCARCERATION OF MIMI: Police got a tip that a woman with the street name “Mimi” might be selling drugs from a motel room on Metropolitan Parkway. So police went to the motel room and knocked on the door. A woman opened the door, and she was holding a suspected crack pipe in one hand and a vibrator in the other hand, an officer noted. The woman “was naked except for a bra.” The officer asked if she was Mimi and she said yes. The officer asked her to hand over the suspected crack pipe. Apparently, Mimi tried to slam the door, but the officer stuck his foot in the door before it closed. After police searched the motel room, Mimi allegedly admitted she had bought $100 worth of crack earlier that day and sold some of it because she ran out of money. According to the police report, Mimi is a 31-year-old prostitute with a scar on her forehead. She was arrested for drug possession.

Get your sneak peak at this week’s Blotter here.

(Illustration by Tray Butler)

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Last week, we pointed to an AJC story recounting a funny/strange Atlanta Police Department report detailing the arrests of several alleged transgender prostitutes in Midtown.

The report uses the words “booty shorts,” “Lady of the Night,” and “transvestite” to describe those arrested.

According to Southern Voice, the report caught the attention of the Atlanta Police Department’s LGBT liason Officer D. Harris, who will re-double her effort to remind APD personnel not to use pejoratives when describing transgendered people.

Incidentally, our post about the AJC story was titled “Booty-short wearing tranny.”

The post’s author, Mara Shalhoup, says the title is an ironic reference to the language used in the AJC story and the police report.

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PARTY GIRL: An officer dealt with a 23-year-old woman passed out in the back of a car at Collier and Peachtree roads. The woman’s friend said they had been drinking at a concert venue on West Peachtree Street and at some point, the 23-year-old woman got very sick, so they called a friend to pick them up. On the way home, the 23-year-old woman reportedly vomited and defecated on herself, so her friend stopped at a gas station to check on her and call for help. Medics took her to Piedmont Hospital.

Later, the officer followed up with Piedmont Hospital. The officer said he talked to the 23-year-old woman’s father, who said she was OK now and she had been sick before going out drinking. She was awake at the hospital and laughing with friends, according to the police report. No visible injuries reported.

Get your sneak peak at this week’s Blotter here.

(Illustration by Tray Butler)

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