Smoked Out: A 24-year-old woman called police last week after an unknown suspect damaged her vehicle but might have saved her life in the process. The woman told officers that someone broke into her car and rifled through the glove box. The suspect found a pack of cigarettes in the glove box, took each one out and destroyed them, spreading tobacco everywhere.

Stolen Words: A teacher at West Charlotte High School filed a police report after she found an effective but expensive way to get students into reading. She told officers that she always brings her Kindle Fire to school and rests it on her desk where students can see it. One day last week she turned around at her desk and when she turned back, it was gone.

Home Fitness Center: An employee at a local apartment complex in south Charlotte called police after watching a man empty out her workplace's fitness room. She told police that the man went into the fitness room, which is free to use, and began filling a laundry basket with lift weights. He brought the weights to his apartment and then made two trips back to refill the basket.

Backpack Bully: Police responded to an assault call at Barringer Elementary School after a 58-year-old teacher ran into a kid who was having a very bad day. She told officers that she was walking down the hall when one of the students walking the other way began swinging his backpack at her. He came closer and hit her in the abdomen and arms with the bag.

For I Have Sinned: A woman filed a report with airport police after a layover in Charlotte resulted in someone stealing her iPad. When the victim landed in Massachusetts, she told airport police there that she had left the device on the plane that landed in Charlotte. After nobody found it, she returned home and turned on the tracking app to discover it sitting in a church in Charlotte.

Grabby Cabbie: A 30-year-old woman called police last week after suffering through the worst cab ride of her life. The woman told police that the cab driver picked her up from a Waffle House at 4 a.m. and then dropped her off at her house about 15 minutes later. When they arrived, she asked the driver how much and he said, "Don't worry about it, a favor for a favor." She paid the man and attempted to leave the cab, but the driver grabbed her leg and asked her who lived with her. She jumped from the cab and took her change from the driver before going inside.

Blotter items are chosen from the files of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department.