The Blotter March 21 2007

THREE MEN FROM SOUTH CAROLINA were visiting Atlanta. They called police to their hotel room. One man, 20, said he and his friends were in town for a concert at the Masquerade. He said they searched the Internet for the closest hotel to the Masquerade — and that’s how they wound up at the hotel on Ponce de Leon Avenue. The officer asked them to explain exactly why they called police to their hotel room. The 20-year-old man said he walked into the hotel room and immediately noticed there was no smoke detector. Then, he said, he opened the bathroom door and noticed the towels had yellow and brown human feces on them. He said his friends tried to turn on the radiator, and the knob fell off and the radiator was extremely hot to the touch. The officer examined the hotel room and “confirmed the room was just as [the 20-year-old man] stated.”

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The officer explained that this was a civil issue and nothing criminal had occurred. He did file a police report for a health-code violation. The officer noted, “I also told the gentlemen that since the receipt stated on it ‘no refunds,’ that this issue was for a courtroom.” The three men left the hotel without a refund. Welcome to Atlanta!

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A MISSOURI MAN was visiting Atlanta. He said when he left his hotel, he had a whole $50 bill on him. Then, he visited the Georgia Aquarium. According to the Missouri man, when he left the Georgia Aquarium, he realized that half of his $50 bill was missing. (Blotter note: Those sea otters probably felt they deserved a tip ... What can you buy with half of a $50 bill?) Welcome to Atlanta!

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A 35-YEAR-OLD ROSWELL WOMAN went to Peachtree Center Mall in downtown Atlanta. She said she parked her Nissan Pathfinder SUV in the garage. She said she returned to her car around 2 p.m. and discovered that someone had smashed a car window — and stolen her breast pump from the car. Security guards found the breast pump (worth $1,500) in the garage and returned it to the Roswell woman. No suspects. Welcome to Atlanta!

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A MIDDLE-AGED MAN parked his black Lincoln Town Car on Conrad Avenue. When he returned to the car, he noticed that someone had scratched the phrase “Grown & Sexy” on the trunk. (He rented the car from Hertz in Boston.) Welcome to Atlanta!

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AT A PHARMACY ON BROAD STREET, a security guard said a man tried to steal a box of Gas-X pills. The man, 58, was arrested for shoplifting and taken to jail. The Gas-X pills are worth about $7.

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A MIDDLE-AGED WOMAN flagged down an officer on Garibaldi Street and said her sister locked their mother inside the mother’s own house. (The mother is 69.) She believed this was a safety issue in case a fire broke out. The police officer went to the mother’s house and talked to her. The mother said she doesn’t feel like she’s in danger, but she couldn’t open the door because her other daughter locked her inside, and the daughter has the key. The police officer told the first daughter about family services available, and told her to call police when her sister comes back, so an officer can talk to all three family members. She said she’d sit by the house and wait for her sister to return.

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ACCORDING TO A POLICE REPORT, an officer saw a man and woman walk up to a house on Simpson Street, hand over some cash to a man at the door and receive some clear baggies with a white substance inside. Police detained the man and woman, and found clear baggies with white stuff on both of them. Both were arrested and put in patrol cars. En route to jail, the woman asked if she told the truth could she get a ticket. The officer said she would surely get a ticket today and go to jail. “I told her she had the right to remain silent and I would use what she said in court,” the officer wrote. “I told her to be quiet and not talk. She advised me she would say whatever she wanted and would not shut up. She continued talking about how she buys cocaine regularly for her and other people in the area. She then told me not to worry about going to court because she was pleading guilty because she was guilty and could not say anything about it.” The woman is 39.

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AROUND 11 P.M., an officer saw a white car going the wrong way on a one-way street. He stopped the car and talked to the driver, a 30-year-old man. “When he rolled the window down, I immediately smelled a strong odor of marijuana emitting from the vehicle,” the officer wrote. The driver agreed to let the officer search him. Nothing turned up. The officer wrote, “While searching the driver, I noticed that he had an accelerated heartbeat, based on this the driver was detained.” The driver agreed to let the officer search the car. The officer found 12 baggies of suspected marijuana in the car trunk. Without being asked, the driver admitted that the suspected marijuana belonged to him. He was arrested for possessing marijuana with the intent to distribute. The driver has a “happy face” tattooed on his left arm.

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A MAN said he parked his car at Lenox Mall. When he returned to his car, he said, his personalized license plate was gone. The license plate reads “Nitty.” A police report was filed. (Blotter note: How long can someone drive around with a stolen personalized license plate before they get caught?)

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Items in the Blotter are taken from actual Atlanta police reports. The Blotter Diva compiles them and puts them into her own words.