That Escalated Quickly Police responded to a call at a 7-Eleven in north Charlotte last week about larceny, but soon realized that they would be adding all sorts of new charges. Officers responded to a larceny call and were originally told that a female suspect had been caught trying to steal from the store. When she was confronted she allegedly began "half kicking" the front door, breaking the glass (damage to property). Further investigation also revealed that the woman threw a banana at the clerk, striking him (assault). While it would seem the clerk was the victim in all this, he got two identical charges of his own, for allegedly kicking the woman's car when she tried to leave the store. He then allegedly "implemented a dose of pepper spray to her face," according to the report. In the end, no larceny charges were filed.
In Memoriam When one chooses an urn to place their ashes in for eternity, one expects it will serve as a memorial for coming generations, at least those that remember them. That was not the case for one man, however. In one of a slew of odd "found property" reports in the files last week, an urn had the undignified end of being found by city sanitation workers on the job just outside of Uptown recently and turned into the nearest police station. If anyone is missing the remains of a loved one who passed away on January 15, 2003, show them some respect and claim them at the CMPD's Westover Division office.
Stop Prying Police filed a found property report after responding to a home in northeast Charlotte last week, but the woman living at the house disagreed that no crime had taken place. The 30-year-old woman called officers to her home after walking out to her front porch and finding a kitchen knife that someone had left on the steps. The woman wanted to report it as an attempted break-in, although there were no signs of any such attempt. Perhaps it was just a late Christmas gift.
Put a Bird On It In yet another odd found property call, police responded to a call in east Charlotte that could have been handled quite easily by whomever called in the first place. Officers filed a report stating that a bag had been found on the side of Central Avenue and that it was believed to be "abandoned." The bag, described as having birds on it, was found to have a pencil and a Band Aid inside, which leads one to ask the obvious question: Why in the hell would you let a bag like that go?
Shot Fired A man thought he was being targeted last week when a bullet came flying into his southeast Charlotte apartment, but later investigation found that his neighbor was just being careless. The 30-year-old man and his 37-year-old roommate had reported that someone had fired a shot through his wall into his apartment at around 9 p.m. one night. Police responded to investigate, and added to the report about nine hours later stating that it was determined the victims' next door neighbor had accidentally detonated a bullet casing while trying to disassemble his gun.
Come Get It If your company is going to go under, at least keep all the snacks you can. A woman filed a police report last week after a company seemed to be trying to bilk her out of her snack machines. The victim told officers that she had operated two vending machines in Ride Now Motors on E. Independence Boulevard until the business recently closed down. The woman said she has been trying to get in touch with the owners of the business since September 2016, both by going to the site and calling on the phone, to no avail. In total, the woman is out $8,000 worth of machinery and merchandise.
Resist A woman suddenly broke out into yelling at a Wells Fargo branch last week, but she wasn't trying to rob the joint, just simply stand up to racism — real or perceived. According to witnesses in the bank, the woman became mad at some point during her business there and began yelling. She asked one employee for their business card, and when the employee tried to hand it to her she smacked the card out of her hand and claimed she was prejudiced against her. She then yelled that the woman and all of the people in the bank that were "like her" should be fired before leaving.
Timber Mystery A 39-year-old woman had the shock of her life last week when she returned to her northwest Charlotte home to find that someone had taken liberties with her prized oak tree. The woman said that some unknown person had cut the entire tree down at some point between 6:30 a.m. and 7 p.m., and she had no clue as to who would want it gone. While these types of incidents often happen between neighbors when a tree sits on a property line, the report states that the large tree was sitting square in the middle of the woman's front yard and could not have been thought to be on property owned by anyone else.
Rub Down A prostitution investigation on North Tryon Street last week ended in some charges being filed that are not only firsts for The Blotter, we didn't even know a couple of these were crimes. According to the crime, someone was arrested for the following charges: massaging without a license, massaging a person of the opposite sex, massaging private parts and prostitution.
