IT’S ALL PERCEPTION A 28-year-old man showed up at CMPD’s North Division field office one recent afternoon to file a reasonable complaint: “a box he received from eBay was too small and empty.”
CRIME DOESN’T PAY A 71-year-old woman fell victim to a cents-less crime at her home in the Montclaire South neighborhood in south Charlotte recently. The woman told police that someone opened a package that had been delivered to her porch while she was at work, then stole what was inside and left the box behind. What was inside? A package of uncirculated pennies valued at $18.87. The silver lining for the pennies themselves is that they now get to live out their purpose and go into circulation.
WAKE-UP CALL A 60-year-old woman called police last week after she had to defend herself from a feuding neighbor at a time when most of us are still asleep. The woman said it was just 6:30 a.m. when the neighbor came knocking on the door over what was deemed in the report “a neighbor dispute.” The woman told police that as soon as she came to the door, the neighbor tried to force their way into her home, but she was ready for that sort of nonsense and quickly pepper sprayed the neighbor, which sent them running scurrying back home.
POPULAR An east Charlotte woman filed a non-criminal incident report last week after becoming aware of a situation that didn’t sit right with her. According to the report, “the victim stated that her number has been handed out to strangers” on the block where she lives.
SAFEKEEPING An observant man — or possibly just an overly curious one — saved what could have been an ugly situation after following his gut in east Charlotte recently. The man told police that he watched another man place a bunch of items behind a tree out in a public area near North Sharon Amity Road where kids play. When the man walked away, the witness went to go check it out. When he did, he found a Glock .40-caliber handgun and a 9-millimeter handgun, along with ammo and magazines that fit both.
CONSIDER THE BRICK Police responded to a vandalism call at an Arby’s on South Boulevard recently, and the officer who filed the report took all damaged property into consideration while doing so. According to the officer’s report, the suspect threw a brick through a window of the Arby’s overnight. The officer reported that, “a hole was knocked into the window and the brick, used to break the window was left behind in broken pieces.”
GOODWILL BURNING Police and fire were called out to a Goodwill in University City one recent morning after a customer decided they would do their part in stopping all the plastic that’s been ending up in the oceans. According to the report, the suspect lit a single plastic bottle on fire in the parking lot of the store at 8 a.m., but the resulting flames (or flame) did no damage to any property but the bottle.
PATIENTLY WAITING We all go through those times when we don’t see a friend for a year or so, but those instances take on a different urgency when that friend has your car. A 50-year-old west Charlotte man was very patient with one of his friends but had to turn to police for help recently when he decided that maybe the two weren’t so close after all. The man called police on July 10 and told them that he had let his friend use his car in July 2018 and that “he had not brought it back yet.”
BEATS ME We recently reported on a suspect who walked out of the Apple Store in SouthPark Mall with an entire sleeve of Apple Watches, and it appears they could use an update to their security procedures because a customer had to alert management to another serial shoplifter one recent morning. According to the report, the store manager told police that a customer approached him and said that they saw someone stealing a large among of equipment. The manager “looked around for the suspect and then went to review the video footage,” at which time he saw the unknown suspect walk out of the store with eight pairs of Beats by Dre headphones, worth a total of $1,600.
MISTAKEN IDENTITY A 46-year-old east Charlotte woman parked her car for just six minutes in the parking lot of a business park near her home recently, and ended up in the midst of a mistake that could cost one local tow company some money. The woman said that she parked her car in the lot at 6:40 p.m., and when she came back outside at 8:46, her Nissan Altima was being towed. Not only that, the tow truck driver did $500 of damage to the car right in front of her. But this victim would get the last laugh, because according to the report, “After further investigation it was discovered that the two truck company took the wrong vehicle and damaged it in the process.”
SWEEPS A 79-year-old south Charlotte woman became the latest victim of scammers recently, after someone convinced her over the phone that she had won the Mega Millions Sweepstakes. The woman told police that the caller told her to send tax money to an unknown representative in Brooklyn, New York, so she took out a $5,000 cash advancement from her Bank of America card and sent the money. She said that when the caller then asked for more money, she became suspicious. People, just know that I don’t include these poor folks in The Scanner to make fun of them, I include them so that you’ll talk to your grandma and grandpa and tell them not give these random callers the time of day.
BATHROOM BOTTLE Police responded to Target at Metropolitan on a recent Sunday morning after a man was caught kicking the new week into high gear early. According to the report, the man entered the store at about 8:40 a.m. and picked out a bottle of Chateau d’Esclans Whispering Angel rose wine and took it with him to the bathroom. It was there that the man spent the next hour drinking the bottle, until staff members realized what was happening and came to drag his happy ass out of there.
MANNERS Never underestimate the power of a sincere apology. Also, don’t overestimate the power of a sincere apology. A 51-year-old woman wanted more than a “sorry” when a car crashed into her in east Charlotte recently, but unfortunately that’s all she got. The woman told officers that she was driving on Eastway Drive when another driver collided his car into her Honda Accord, doing $1,000 in damage. According to the report, “At that time, the suspect yelled ‘Sorry!’ and then fled the scene, in an effort to evade taking responsibility for the collision he caused.”
All Scanner entries are pulled from CMPD reports. Suspects are innocent until proven guilty.
This work by Queen City Nerve is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
