Allen Park
Video games taken for run
Two thefts recently were reported within seven days at King Video, 18626 Allen Road.
At about 3:45 p.m. Tuesday, a man went to the rear of the store where video games are kept, grabbed two games valued at $52 each and fled on foot in an unknown direction. He was caught on surveillance video and is described as a dark-haired white male in his early 20s, wearing a white T-shirt, black shorts and having a tattoo on his right arm that stretches from elbow to wrist.
About 5 p.m. June 9, a white male believed to be between the ages of 17 and 19 stole three unknown video games valued at $60 each. Police said he had short brown hair and was wearing a white T-shirt and black jean shorts. The act was caught on camera. An employee believes the suspect got into a green Chevrolet.
Air be gone
A $4,000 furnace and $2,000 central air-conditioning unit were stolen from a home-based business in the 17000 block of O’Connor on May 27, but the report was not called in until June 11 because paperwork had to be completed.
There were no known suspects at the time the report was made. No evidence could be obtained.
Dearborn
Uninvited ‘tenant’ evicted
A 49-year-old woman staying in a rental house in the 15200 block of Normandale unbeknownst to the owner was arrested about 2 p.m. June 12.
The owner of the house said the conflict started in early May when the woman responded to a “For Rent” sign in front of the house. The owner took her on a tour of the house, but said he never heard back from her.
When he returned from a vacation on June 9 he went to check on the house, where to his surprise he found the woman. He said he told her to leave in three days or he would call police.
The woman screamed at police to leave her alone when they knocked on the front door, officers said, and that she told them there was a rental agreement, but she didn’t have it with her.
She said she would follow up with the department and move out when she wanted to. The owner then gave police a set of keys to the house to make entry.
The keys didn’t work on the front door, but did open a side entry door. However, when officers entered, they were met by another locked door that they didn’t have a key to.
Eventually, they pried the door open and placed the woman under arrest. Officers said the woman is a “known squatter” in Dearborn and has had previous similar incidents.
Change seeker pulls switcheroo
A man looking to exchange $49 in small bills for $10 bills ended up walking out of O’Sushi, 22431 Michigan Ave., with $100 about 3:30 p.m. June 12.
A store employee said the man gave him a handful of fives and ones that added up to $49. When the employee said he still needed another $1, the man obliged, and ended up with five $10 bills.
The suspect then turned in all the money for three $20 bills and four $10 bills, which gave him the $100, before fleeing on foot.
Police responded to a similar incident at the nearby Panera Bread, 22208 Michigan Ave., but the suspect didn’t make off with any money in that case. Area businesses were advised to be on the lookout for the scam.
Dearborn Heights
Senior sleeps, burglar enters
A 75-year-old woman’s car and purse were stolen sometime overnight June 12 while she slept at her house in the 4400 block of Campbell.
She called police when she woke up about 7:20 a.m. to discover several items askew in her kitchen and her purse missing. She also looked outside and found her 2005 Ford Focus was missing from her driveway.
Officers arrived on the scene and surmised the suspect entered her house through an unlocked kitchen window The purse, which was sitting on the kitchen table, contained the car keys.
Woman calls police to disarm WWII grenade
Michigan State Police Bomb Squad technicians removed a World War II-era hand grenade from a house in the 4900 block of Bedford about 1 p.m. June 7.
The owner of the house told police the grenade was a souvenir her father brought home from the war. She said she had just transported it from her sister’s house in Dearborn and was concerned that it might be dangerous.
Bomb technicians took the grenade for destruction.
Lincoln Park
Laptop, hair care items pulled from cars
Two cars were broken into at the same house sometime overnight Tuesday in the 600 block of Leblanc.
The rear passenger-side window of a 2001 Cadillac was pried open, causing $500 worth of damage, and $400 laptop computer was removed.
The factory radio was removed from a 2006 Chrysler 300, causing $200 worth of damage to the dash. About $1,600 worth of professional hair care equipment also was taken from the car.
Careless copper thieves damage house
About $1,000 worth of copper plumbing and air conditioner line was discovered missing about noon Tuesday from a house in the 1900 block of Richmond.
A downspout also was missing, and drywall had been damaged by the removal of the copper.
Melvindale
Drunken brother wears out welcome
Police were called to the house of a 50-year-old resident in the 2700 block of Margaret about 12:30 a.m. Wednesday because his brother was drunk in the back yard, being loud and refusing to leave.
The man said his brother came over drunk, continued to drink, fell off a chair and hit his head on the patio. The brother had fallen and hit his head a week before, the resident told police, causing a gash that required staples to close. The man said his brother was making all sorts of noise and knocking things over that night.
Officers arrived to find the brother lying in the grass in the back yard. He was highly intoxicated and had urinated himself. Officers called in medical aid for the head injury and issued the brother a ticket for disorderly intoxication.
Youth drinking in public
A woman approached an officer at Melvindale Days about 6:30 p.m. last Sunday to report an underage man in an orange-striped shirt drinking alcohol out of a lemonade cup.
The officer recognized the subject as a 19-year-old resident he had contact with the previous day. When asked about the contents of the cup, the suspect said it was lemonade.
The cup contents were darker than lemonade and the officer could smell the alcohol. The man then tried to say the cup contained soda.
When the officer said the cup contained alcohol, the man said it contained wine, which he said he was allowed to have because it was Sunday. He was arrested and began to talk back to officers while being taken away.
Riverview
Love declared on brick
Spray paint damage was found on two brick pillars at Sibley Road and Valleyview about 10:30 a.m. June 12. Police said the time of the painting is unknown.
A backwards R, a heart symbol and a regular R were painted on the north and south sides of the west pillar and the south side of the east pillar.
Windshields shattered
The front and rear windshields were shattered sometime between 5 to 6:30 a.m. June 5 on a black 1998 Ford Contour in the 14000 block of Brookview Drive.
The woman who owned the car said it had been vandalized numerous times during the past two years, and that she suspects her boyfriend’s ex-wife is responsible. She recently got a personal protection order against the ex-wife. The victim’s apartment complex is expected to install security cameras soon.
The windows were valued at $400 each.
Southgate
Generators, motorcycle helmets gone from garage
Several items were removed sometime before 12:30 p.m. last Sunday from a garage in the 14600 block of Trenton Road.
Police said a side door had been pried open, and that a concrete block near a wooden fence was tipped over,
possibly indicating the thieves’ route of escape.
Missing were three motorcycle helmets valued at $70 each, a 3,000-watt generator ($2,000), a 900-watt generator ($1,000), a weed trimmer ($150) and a reciprocating saw ($100).
A cigarette pack was found inside the garage; police are checking it for fingerprints.
Taylor
Inventory uncovers artsy theft
About $2,200 worth of art supplies were discovered missing last week during an inventory at Hobby Lobby, 23865 Eureka.
An employee told police the discovery was made between noon June 2 and noon June 9. Most of the merchandise consisted of iron-on crystals for clothing and oil paints.
Short trip proves long enough for break-in
A house in the 26600 block of Leroy was robbed between 1 and 2:30 p.m. June 11 while the resident was registering her daughter for school.
The resident said she returned to find her back door open and two lawn chairs stacked up under an open window that police said was used to gain entry.
Missing items included a laptop computer, video games, $900 from a lock box and jewelry from a spare purse. Drawers in the house had been rummaged through.
Trenton
Man threatens to shoot dog
Police responded about 7:40 p.m. last Sunday to a call from the 3200 block of Edison that a man had threatened to kill a resident’s dog.
The dog’s owner said the man, a friend of one of her neighbors, came to over to her fence, yelling, “I will put a cap in that dog.”
She also said he was waving a gun at the dog.
When questioned later by telephone, the man admitted making the statement but said he did not have a gun in his hand at the time, and that the dog is a pit bull and had tugged on his baseball jersey.
Cyclist arrested after giving fake name
Police stopped a 24-year-old Taylor man about 2 a.m. last Sunday as he rode his bicycle along Grange Road near Steiner.
The officer said he made the stop in light of a recent string of larcenies from motor vehicles in the city. The man became very confrontational when asked where he was coming from and gave them a false name at first.
A check of the name turned up a man who was 4 or 5 inches shorter and did not match the rider’s description. The rider then tried to say he had just moved to Flat Rock, and that he was headed home, and that he had been at a friend’s house. He could only give them the friend’s first name, however.
Earlier that night police had spotted the man in foot in the area of Harrison and West Jefferson and at Harrison and Gorno. The officer released the man at the scene, but after the check on the name he gave them proved conclusively false, another officer stopped him near Allen Road and Vreeland, where he
revealed his real name.
The man also told them he was wanted on a parole violation out of Taylor. Police then arrested him for hindering, obstructing and providing false information.
Detectives said they were still unsure why he was in the area, but that it was the same southern portion of the city where a man had been seen crossing through a sewer tunnel and looking into vehicles on June 5 before jumping a wall into Woodhaven.
Wyandotte
Squatters take over resident’s house
A 63-year-old traveling registered nurse left her residence in the 1600
block of 16th Street on May 31 for a 10-day trip to North Carolina.
While away, she typically leaves a concealed key outside for her son and a family friend. She was in the process of negotiating another traveling RN to temporarilystay at her residence, but nothing had been agreed upon or formalized.
She received a call June 5 from a neighbor, who said three people and two dogs had been sleeping nearby in a 2000 Chrysler van registered to a 37-year-old Kalamazoo woman.
On June 9, the caller said, the vehicle returned and the people appeared to be inside the victim’s house. Upon request from the victim, the neighbor went to the house and told the suspect and his several friends and dogs to leave, and they complied.
Upon returning home June 10, the woman discovered the hidden key missing and said all of the bedrooms had been used. Though no valuables appeared missing, suspects had helped themselves to a considerable amount of rare and expensive alcohol stored in the liquor cabinet, as well as to food in the refrigerator.
The victim estimated her loss at about $1,000 for consumed items, lost rent, cleanup costs and new locks.