The Blotter September 25 2002

An officer was on patrol near some train tracks. “I noticed the sounds of a train and the railroad crossings being lowered,” the officer wrote. As the railroad crossings reached a horizontal position, a 32-year-old woman straddled the crossing and began “riding” the crossing. After the train passed, the woman remained on the railroad crossing, preventing it from raising up. Traffic was blocked. The woman, who had removed her shirt, was hanging upside-down from the crossing. The officer forced her off and ordered her to put her shirt back on. She was so drunk, she couldn’t walk to the patrol car without the officer’s help.

At a fast-food restaurant on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, a female employee said two women pulled up to the drive-thru window. She took their order and served them. The passenger in the car said her soda was mostly water. The female employee said she couldn’t exchange a soda after it has been partially consumed. The passenger threw the soda into the employee’s face. They drove away. Police stopped the women about three blocks away. The passenger was charged with disorderly conduct.

An officer parked his patrol car on 11th Street and spoke with two citizens in front of their home. A 31-year-old man on a bicycle approached and asked what was wrong. Nothing is wrong, said the officer, we are just talking. The two citizens asked the man on the bicycle to leave them alone. The man became upset. The officer asked him to leave. The man, who smelled of alcohol, initially refused to leave. Eventually, he started to pedal away. He then turned around about 20 feet from the patrol car and sped toward it. He struck the patrol car with his bicycle and fled. Police tracked him down in Piedmont Park. He was charged with interfering with government property.

A female officer responded to a disturbance on Georgia Avenue. A 31-year-old woman and her boyfriend said they were just having an argument. The woman said that she wanted to go to jail. The officer asked her to get out of the street and step onto the sidewalk. The woman said she would do anything to go to jail. The officer said he had no reason to take her to jail. Do you need initiative? the woman asked. She picked up what appeared to be a metal pipe from a sprinkler. She approached the patrol car. She said if she broke the windows of the patrol car, she knew the officer would take her to jail. A supervisor arrived on scene. The officer repeatedly asked the woman to get out of the street, and she refused. Eventually, the woman was arrested for disorderly conduct. En route to jail, she tried to kick out the patrol car windows.

A 23-year-old man said the back door of his home on Ashby Grove was damaged. He said someone stole two pairs of boots and three sets of jumpsuits. He added that someone also unplugged his stereo, VCR, cable and television.

A man from Columbus, Ohio,said he came to Atlanta to attend a science-fiction convention. The Ohio man said another man approached him and said his car was broken down. The man needed $140 for a tow truck. The Ohio man gave the other man $140 and a ride to a gas station on Ponce de Leon Avenue.

At the gas station, the other man appeared to pay for a tow truck. Then, the Ohio man gave the other man a ride down Courtland Avenue. The other man got out near the park. He told the Ohio man to circle the block, and he would flag down the tow truck. The Ohio man complied, and circled the block. When he returned to the park, the other man was gone. The Ohio man went back to the gas station, and discovered that the other man never paid for a tow truck.

A 52-year-old man left his apartment on Sylvan Road for the weekend. He returned home Sunday morning around 4 a.m., and found a man asleep in his apartment. The man wore red tennis shoes. The 52-year-old said he picked up a stick and beat the man out. The 52-year-old said he knew the man and he hung around the area. The 52-year-old said the man was smoking crack in his apartment and pointed out the razor blades in an ashtray, with residue of crack and marijuana. His neighbors told him that people were coming in and out of his apartment while he was away. Also missing from his apartment: a sewing kit, two men’s dress suits and four bottles of cologne.

At a rooming house on Rockwell Street, a 40-year-old man said his live-in girlfriend got mad because he was at his ex-girlfriend’s house that morning. The girlfriend said her boyfriend left the rooming house without giving her a key, which meant she couldn’t leave. She called his ex-girlfriend’s house. The boyfriend answered the phone by saying, “Hello, Burger King.”

When the boyfriend returned to the rooming house, a fight broke out. The boyfriend said the current girlfriend bit him on the arm. The girlfriend said the boyfriend threw her on the bed, and her face and nose were scratched. Both refused medical treatment. The girlfriend said she is pregnant, and this is the first time they have gotten into a physical fight.

All items in The Blotter are taken from actual Atlanta police reports and are public record.??