Divine protection
by Lauren Keating
A deacon walked into his church and noticed a very lumpy rug near the front door. He lifted up the rug, found a brown AK-47 rifle — and immediately called police. "I checked the weapon to make sure it was safe and no rounds were with the weapon," an officer wrote. A computer check revealed the AK-47 was NOT stolen ... but it's unclear who owns it. The weapon is worth about $500.
Flaky father: Around 8:30 a.m., a woman found a semi-automatic gun in her neighborhood about a half-mile from Bolton Elementary School. Because of the high volume of children walking to school, she picked up the gun to take it home and call police. While walking home, she spotted an Atlanta Police patrol car and gave the gun to the officer. "I retrieved the weapon from her and did one last patrol round through the neighborhood to look for suspicious activity before heading to police precinct to turn the weapon in," the officer wrote. While the officer was driving around, a 42-year-old man flagged him down. He said earlier, he was in a hurry to get his children to school that morning, so he put his pistol on the roof of his car while strapping in his kids. In his haste, he drove away, leaving his pistol on the car roof. The man said he retraced his path, looking for his gun, but it was gone — so he called 911. The officer confirmed the man's story — and asked him to describe the weapon and serial number. It all checked out, so the cop gave him back his gun. "No charges were made due to [the man's] diligence in attempting to recover his weapon and then immediately reporting it to police," the officer wrote. That's right, no charges for leaving a gun on the roof of your car, while driving your kids to school.
Pretty in pink: Around 4 a.m. in downtown Atlanta, an officer pulled into a McDonald's and noticed a blue Chevy Impala haphazardly parked. "The vehicle in no way, form or fashion was in any parking space, meaning in between the white lines ... it was parked in a northeast orientation while the white parking lines were oriented east and west." The driver's window was rolled down and the smell of marijuana was pouring out.
The officer asked the driver to get out of car. "Am I getting arrested for my warrant?" asked the driver, a 28-year-old woman. "She did not have any pants or lower garments on her person," the officer noted. "She did however have a hot pink dress that was pulled up nearly to her navel region." Put some clothes on, the officer said. So the woman put on some pajama bottoms she kept in her car. The passenger, a 26-year-old guy, said the marijuana belonged to him. The officer arrested both and put them in the patrol car. En route to the precinct, the woman announced that she had taken her pajama pants off "in the back of my car," the officer wrote. The officer radioed ahead for a female cop to stand outside the precinct in case the woman needed help dressing herself. They got her pajama pants back on her and took her to jail.
Fluid situation: A 28-year-old woman said she was walking her kids home from school when a female rival walked up and poured a can of liquid all over her and her baby in her stroller.
The two women live in the same apartment complex and have longtime problems — over what, we don't know. The rival claimed the first woman ran over her foot with the baby stroller — so she retaliated by dumping her drink on them because she was "ready to fight."
An officer spoke with an apartment security guard, who said he's already warned the two women to "steer clear of one another." They can't seem to resolve their differences and continue to have smackdowns on the property to and from their children's school.
Officer Spellgood on duty: In Midtown, an officer saw a man "holding a handbag" and standing on the corner of 4th and Piedmont. When the man turned away, "I could clearly see his thong underwear and visually see his nake (sic) buttocks," the officer wrote. The man "was dress in woman's clothing. [He] was wearing a mini black dress, boots and a jacket. The back of his dress was made out of fish net which let his buttock exposed to the public." The man said he didn't live in the area and that he was just "waiting on a friend." He could not provide a name or how long he had been waiting on that friend. The officer arrested the 26-year-old man on an indecency ticket (exposing buttocks) and took him to jail. He hails from a small town near Moultrie.
Lucky break: Around midnight, a 73-year-old man tried to cash his scratch-off lottery tickets at a convenience store in Washington Park. The cashier waited for two other customers to leave — and then locked the front door. The man asked the cashier to unlock the door so he could leave. No way, said the cashier. At some point, the cashier "came out from behind the counter with a mop" and acted aggressive and threatening. So the old man called 911. Police arrived and the cashier ducked under the counter. No charges were filed.
Items in the Blotter are taken from actual Atlanta police reports. The Blotter Diva compiles them and puts them into her own words.
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