Pop Off One might think that the days following Halloween are tough on school bus drivers, who have to deal with kids hopped up on sugar bouncing off the walls of their bus. Those drivers don't know the struggle of the drivers who transport summer school students. In the days following July 4, one driver reported that a student set off fireworks in the back of her bus at 7:30 a.m. while she was driving down Arrowood Road.
Doesn't Grow On Trees Speaking of sugar highs, two thieves in Charlotte last week were willing to go to great lengths to get their fix. Police responded to Dollar Tree in Plaza Midwood in the early morning hours after someone smashed through the storefront window. The burglar wasn't looking for money, however, but instead made off with a $750 candy machine. In an unrelated incident, employees at a Fed Ex store in west Charlotte reported that someone made off with $4 worth of jelly beans.
Just Playing A 35-year-old man wanted to document a case in which someone threatened him on the street he lives on, although he wanted to make it clear that he ain't scared. The man told officers that the suspect made a hand gesture toward him as if he was aiming a gun before driving off. The man told police that he does not feel threatened by the suspect, but would like to have the incident on record.
Spicing Things Up A few shoplifters in Charlotte last week decided they wanted to invigorate their sex lives ... but on a budget. At about 3:30 p.m. on a Monday, someone allegedly walked out of Priscilla McCall's lingerie and gift shop on South Boulevard with three bottles of anal lubricant and a single bottle of "personal lubricant," totaling $64. Exactly one hour later, police responded to a call in SouthPark Mall about a suspect who had allegedly ran out of Victoria's Secret with 78 pairs of "No-Show" seamless panties. A day later, a suspect stole a $20 pack of Trojan Magnum condoms from a 7-11 in the University area. It's unclear whether any of these were related, but if that's not the case, the suspects should meet up.
Not Father Material A 21-year-old man in the University area learned that he'd be a father in an alarming way last week. The man called police and told them that he had woken up that morning to find that someone had slashed all four tires on his Nissan Altima. He went through the day perplexed as to who would do such a thing, until later that evening when he began receiving calls from the probable suspect. He told officers a woman he had apparently slept with at some point called him 48 times during that night and would only say, "You got me pregnant and I am going to kill you."
Product Placement At least one bad actor got away with using counterfeit money at a McDonald's on South Tryon Street last week. Employees were counting the day's take at some point in the evening when they realized that one of the $20 bills in the cash register didn't look right. A closer look showed that the bill had "For Motion Picture Use Only" printed across it.
Government in Action A 33-year-old woman went to police after realizing she had been scammed last week, although she probably should have seen that the fix was in much earlier in the process. She told officers that someone called her and led her to believe that he was an IRS representative. Over the course of the conversation, she spoke with three people who claimed to be with the IRS. These people informed her that she owed back taxes and would need to pay them immediately or she would go to jail. The suspects then explained to her that the only way to pay what she owed would be to purchase $2,450 worth of iTunes gift cards from a local Best Buy and read the confirmation numbers of the cards over the phone to the supposed IRS agents. She followed right along, and realized later that day that she had been scammed and didn't actually owe any taxes.
Will Work For Music It seems iTunes cards have become popular with scammers lately, as one woman in south Charlotte learned the hard way when she was swindled out of money by a "family member." She told officers she received a call from the suspect, who claimed to be her cousin and in need of financial assistance in Chicago. The woman gave the suspect $1,000 in Apple gift cards, though it's unclear what sort of assistance the so-called cousin needed that could be addressed through iTunes. After the woman checked up on her actual cousin, which she probably should have done before buying the gift cards, she learned the entire thing was a scam and that her cousin was never ever in Chicago.
Threat of the Week A 24-year-old man filed a report last week after he apparently began to annoy someone who couldn't be bothered. The victim told officers that the suspect told him, "You are bothering me and my child. I'm going to kill you with my bare hands. I'm going to destroy you." In an unrelated incident, one man reported being threatened by someone who couldn't decide if he was going to do the killing or if the police were. He said the suspect wrote on his Facebook wall, "If you keep making stupid blanket statements I'm gonna come get you ... I'll see you soon ... Your time will come ... SWAT will kill you."
