The Blotter October 09 2002

At 10:40 a.m., a citizen told a police officer that people were pouring gasoline on a man at a gas station on Ponce de Leon Avenue and Monroe Drive. The officer went to the gas station and saw a 34-year-old man walking from the gas pumps. The 34-year-old smelled of gasoline and was rubbing his eyes. The officer asked what happened. Nothing, everything is OK, said the 34-year-old.

A witness said he saw the 34-year-old get out of the passenger side of a Ford Explorer and walk around the car. Then, the 34-year-old slapped his girlfriend, who was pumping gas into the Ford. The girlfriend, age 22, turned the gas nozzle toward the boyfriend and some gas spurted onto him. The girlfriend said this was an accident. She said she and her boyfriend were arguing about the name of the gas station. She wasn’t injured. The boyfriend was charged with battery.

A 63-year-old woman from Baltimore, Md., said she went to a beauty supply shop on Peachtree Street. She left, and while driving on I-75, she realized she didn’t have her purse. She went back to the beauty supply store and asked if anyone had her purse. The clerk said she hadn’t seen the purse. The 63-year-old woman told police her purse contained $1,702 cash, $16 in loose change, and a gold chain with a silver Nefertiti head (worth $100).

At Hartsfield Airport, U.S. Customs detained a 49-year-old man from Acworth because he was wanted for a probation violation on a DUI in Kennesaw. The man was taken to jail. The man was recently released from a Canadian hospital after a hair transplant procedure. At the time of arrest, the man estimated that he had 60 to 70 stitches in his head and a bulk order of medication.

A 30-year-old woman said she left her car overnight in the parking lot of an abandoned church on Bankhead Highway. When she returned the next morning, she discovered that someone had slashed the seats of her Ford Taurus, spray-painted the interior of the car and broke six windows.

An 85-year-old man parked his truck in the parking lot of a grocery store on Cascade Avenue. A young woman approached him and asked if he wanted to see her boss. She put her hand in his front shirt pocket and took his bank envelope, which contained $1,500. She fled in a Buick.

A bald man and a skinny man walked into a gas station on Howell Mill Road and stole two packages of tissue paper and two orange sodas.

In front of a jail on Peachtree Street, an officer reported that two men were fighting “over a crack rock not being crack cocaine.” The two men were arrested for fighting and taken to the nearby jail. One man, age 24, appeared to be on drugs. The other man, age 41, also appeared to be on drugs, and had a tattoo of the Virgo sign on one arm, and a tattoo of the Virgin Mary on the other arm.

A 44-year-old man said he normally buys from and drives for some drug dealers, who are angry with him. The 44-year-old saw the drug dealers beat up a woman, and they said they were going to beat him up next, so he fled. The drug dealers found him and rear-ended his car on Metropolitan Parkway. The 44-year-old said he normally drives the drug dealers and their “product” to where they need to go. But, the 44-year-old said, he draws the line at transporting guns.

A 27-year-old woman on Colonial Homes Drive received a harassing phone call, which originated from a toll-free number for an apartment guide service. The caller, a middle-aged man, referred to the 27-year-old by name. The caller said he had the 27-year-old’s father, and if she wanted to see him again, she better listen and do what he told her. The caller asked if the 27-year-old was in the room alone. “Yes,” said the 27-year-old. The caller ordered her to talk dirty to him. The 27-year-old remained silent. The caller said, “I guess you don’t realize how serious this is” and hung up.

The 27-year-old contacted her father, who was fine and wasn’t being held hostage by anyone. She also contacted the apartment guide service, which said the call originated from Fort Wayne, Ind.

In Buckhead Village, a citizen told a police officer that three men were sitting in a car and dealing drugs. The officer approached the men, who were drinking alcoholic beverages in a red Chevy Cavalier. The officer asked the driver to step out of the car. At this point, the two passengers fled on foot. The officer placed the driver against the car. The driver threw his drink in the officer’s face and ran. The driver, a 24-year-old Stone Mountain man, ran upstairs at a location on East Paces Ferry Road. The officer chased him. At the top of the stairs, the driver grabbed a broom and hit the officer with the broom handle. The driver ran back down the stairs, and a citizen stopped him. He went to jail.

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