Allen Park
Spray can getaway
An employee at Ulta Beauty, 3150 Fairlane Drive, called police about 12:45 p.m. Tuesday to report the theft of several spray items valued at more than $1,000.
Security camera footage from about 7:30 p.m. the previous day showed four black women entering the store, concealing items and leaving in a gray vehicle.
Van broken into
so car can be stolen
A 2001 Ford Taurus turned up missing about 5:30 p.m. Aug. 29 in the 9600 block of Seavitt.
It belonged to the girlfriend of the residents’ son and was gone from the driveway of the house upon her return from a trip to California.
The car was parked between two other vehicles under a carport, but the family’s van had been moved and then moved back to its original position after the car had been removed. The van was left unlocked after it was moved.
Inside the house, the girlfriend’s key ring, which was left in the kitchen, was missing the key to the Taurus. The van’s keys had been moved, but replaced.
Three people had been given keys to the house, including the 16-year-old girl next door, who said she let her best friend borrow the house keys in order to use the family’s computer printer on Aug. 27. The friend said she returned the keys to the neighbor’s mailbox the same day, and that the Taurus still was there when she left.
About $200 was taken from an unlocked safe in the basement, but nothing else in the house was disturbed.
Dearborn
Street fight ends in arrests
Police arrested four people Aug. 27 in the 7000 block of Mead who tried breaking into a house to fight with the resident inside.
Officers were dispatched about 11:15 a.m. on reports of a large fight in the street. When they arrived, they reported observing a group of males – ages 13, 16, 20 and 22 – banging on the doors and windows of the house, yelling for the man to come out. The 13-year-old alleg-edly was yelling profanities and racial slurs at the Arab men in the house, caus-ing police to detain him.
As he was being detained, the other suspects – all of whom are Arabs – picked up lawn furniture on the porch and began throwing it at the doors and windows of the house, despite the orders of police, officers said. When sufficient backup arrived, all were arrested.
The man whom they allegedly were trying to fight came outside his house and told police the incident began when the 13-year-old approached him and a friend on his front porch and asked for a cigarette. The man, age 20, said he told the boy he was too young to smoke and to get off of his property, causing a heated exchange that eventually led to the man pushing the boy to the ground.
Shortly thereafter, the man told police, the boy returned with the other suspects who were at the house next door, and they began calling for the man and his friend to come outside. The man said he was forced to spray pepper spray out of his front door to repel the group as they pounded on his door.
Police observed several dents to the man’s front door, including one that looked like a knife puncture. They also reported the door jamb nearly was destroyed in the ordeal. All of the men arrested were charged with malicious destruction of property and failure to obey a police officer.
Restaurant worker
suspected in multiple credit card frauds
A drive-through employee at KFC, 12721 Michigan, was suspended from her job and is under investigation in con-nection with a series of recent credit card frauds.
A resident of the 5900 block of Kenilworth called police Aug. 31 after discovering $1,000 in fraudulent credit card charges to a Meijer store in Sterling Heights. She told police that the only suspicious thing she remembered involving the card was her trip to the KFC the night prior.
She said after giving her card to the cashier, the cashier disappeared for what seemed like a long time before returning with it. The woman said she was suspicious when the cashier said she had been looking for a pen, but didn’t think too much of it until she found the charges. A store manager told police security footage from the incident showed the employee take the credit card and then disappear into the restaurant’s walk-in freezer for several minutes before emerging. The manager said it was the second time the employee has been accused of a credit card fraud and footage from the other incident was identical.
Dearborn Heights
Cash, checks missing from senior center
About $350 in cash and checks was reported missing on Aug. 10 from the Richard A. Young Recreation Center, 5400 McKinley.
A recreation coordinator told police the money was found to be missing by a center employee the night earlier. The coordinator said the money – $120 cash and $225 in checks – was inside an enve-lope and may have been taken or thrown out by accident.
Burglary nets diamond jewelry, electronics
Roughly $11,500 in diamond jewelry and consumer electronic devices was stolen sometime near Aug. 12 from a house in the 25400 block of Notre Dame.
Police said the culprit broke in through a rear window and ransacked a bedroom to locate a $2,000 bracelet and $6,000 ring. Also taken was a flat-screen television valued at $1,500 and two lap-top computers worth a combined $1,900.
Lincoln Park
Pipes ripped off
A woman who had just bought a house in the 100 block of Lincoln discov-ered $1,500 worth of copper piping missing about 6:30 a.m. Monday.
She said the house had been secured as of 10 p.m. Aug. 28, and that she had not yet purchased insurance for it.
Copper pipes also were removed from a rental house last Sunday night in the 800 block of London.
Intruder awakens residents
A resident in the 600 block of Garfield woke up about 3:30 a.m. Monday after hearing someone walking up the stairs inside his house. Another resident had heard a loud bang minutes earlier.
He got out of bed and saw a bald-headed man standing on the stairs. The first resident began throwing items at the man, who ran back downstairs and out the side door. The door’s handle had been damaged, but nothing appeared to be missing from the house.
Melvindale
Construction tractor stolen from site
A yellow construction tractor with a front-loader bucket and back extension arm with an attached frost hook was stolen between 6:15 p.m. Aug. 27 and 6:15 a.m. Aug. 30 from the 17100 block of Schafer Road, north of Raupp.
The vehicle is valued at between $150,000 and $180,000. The on-site supervisor told police it had been parked for the weekend, and that other compa-nies and employees he checked with said they did not have it.
Tire tracks from the tractor were found on the concrete and where a ditch had been filled with gravel in order to steal it. Police said four bottles that had been inside the tractor were found on the ground and may bear fingerprints.
Surrounding gas stations and businesses did not have video surveillance of the theft, but the supervisor said the machine could be identified from afar by the identification number of 3281 posted on it.
Repeat shoplifter scared off by employee
An employee of Dollar General, 18276 Allen Road, told police that a woman previously caught stealing from the store had just left about 7 p.m. Aug. 29.
The woman. described as white and wearing black pants and a white shirt, drove off in an early 1980s blue Ford Mustang.
The employee said the woman had been banned from entering the store but came in that night and may have put items in her purse. The employee then confronted the woman, who then took off running to her car.
Riverview
Suspended speedster caught for fourth time this year
An officer traveling west on Sibley Road near Civic Park Drive about 2:15 a.m. Monday noticed a green 2001 Ford Mustang pulling away and stopped it for going 42 mph in a 35-mph zone.
The 21-year-old Woodhaven woman behind the wheel had a suspended license and was arrested and given a warning for speeding.
She had received five previous speeding tickets since April 2008. Three of those came in January and February of this year; the first earned her a suspended license.
Thief’s friend returns call to victims
A cell phone was stolen about 10:15 a.m. Aug. 22 from a 14-year-old resident while he was running at Young Patriots Park.
The boy put his cell phone, valued at $200, in a duffle bag and left it on the side of the track while he ran. Upon returning, the bag was there, but the phone was gone.
The boy’s mother called the cell phone several times without a response. She received a call later that day from a man at an unknown number who asked why she kept calling his friend “Aaron’s” phone. She told him it was her son’s stolen phone; the man then said he would relay the message to Aaron.
After receiving no response, the woman went to police at 8 p.m. with a detailed list of all the numbers called using the phone since the time it was stolen.
The officer then called Aaron’s friend and told him he could help locate a “lost” phone. The man said he would speak to Aaron and ask him to return it to the Police Department.
Southgate
Garages cleaned out
A paint sprayer valued at $3,000, a tool box full of hand tools ($500) and a mig welder and tank ($250) were taken overnight Aug. 27 from a garage in the 16700 block of Helen.
A padlock had been removed, but police said there were no signs of forced entry.
Overnight Aug. 26, several items were taken from a garage in the 13600 block of Mercier.
Among them were a generator val-ued at $500, a snowblower ($575) and a power washer ($450).
The garage was locked police said, but pry marks were found around a side door.
Taylor
Thieves thwart project at high school
Several pieces of pipe and some fittings were taken between 3:30 p.m. Aug. 20 and 7 a.m. Aug. 22 from Truman High School, 11211 Beech Daly.
A worker said the items, valued at about $2,000 had been left near a back door in preparation for some work that is being done.
Pizza man’s pocket picked
A 23-year-old Allen Park man was robbed about 10:30 p.m. Aug. 26 while delivering a pizza in the 16700 block of Haskell.
He told police he was met by two black males as he approached the house. The taller of the two walked up from behind and reached into the man’s left front pocket and removed $60 to $80 in cash belonging to the store.
Both subjects then fled toward Filmore.
Trenton
Woman’s mower swiped, sold to neighbor
A resident of the 3200 block of Marian came home about 4:30 p.m. Aug. 26 find her garage door open.
When she went inside to check on her cats, she noticed her lawn mower was gone. She initially suspected a neighbor, but police checked his garage and did not find the mower.
About 6:45 p.m. she called police to say that a man cutting his grass behind her house was using a mower that looked like hers. Police checked it out and found that it was indeed the wom-an’s mower and returned it to her.
The man told police he had bought it from another man for $50 a few days before.
Stolen knives left in bushes
Police were called about 6:20 p.m. Aug. 26 to the 2800 block of Canterbury on word that a set of culinary knives was taken from a 1998 Dodge two-door.
They found pry marks on the top of the door area. The owner said the car’s alarm went off about 1 a.m. that day.
The next morning the complainant found the knives and case in the bushes in front of his neighbor’s house.
Wyandotte
Son threatens to have mother raped, killed
A resident called police in tears about 2:15 p.m. Monday after her son, who turned 17 the day before, assaulted and threatened her before leaving their apartment in the 200 block of Second.
The woman said because her son had quit school and was not working, she told him he had to get rid of his dog in a few days. Her son got angry and spit in her face, police said.
She said he then pushed her into a wall, causing her to fall back in a seated position, landing in a laundry basket. He then went into his sister’s bedroom and punched two holes in the wall next to several other holes he had made during prior incidents.
The mother said her son threatened to blow up her car if she touches his dog, adding that he knows a number of people who would rape and kill her.
The woman said she has had numerous incidents with her son, but that this is the first she has reported to police. She said her son is affiliated with a Detroit gang and is supposed to be taking medication for anxiety. He also is scheduled for a Sept. 13 psychiatric evaluation.