Allen Park
Driver switches seats to avoid tickets
A Brownstown Township man was arrested after switching seats with the passenger in an attempt to avoid being caught speeding and possessing drugs during a traffic stop.
At 10:52 p.m. Sunday, officers clocked a vehicle traveling 53 miles per hour near the intersection of Enterprise and Southfield Road, 13 miles per hour above the posted speed limit. An officer observed a 20-year-old man in the driver’s seat as the car turned southbound onto Norwood from Southfield. Before the officer approached the vehicle, it shook and the driver momentarily disappeared from view.
When the officer approached the driver’s-side window, the man was sitting in a back passenger’s seat and a passenger was sitting in the driver’s seat. The driver told the officer he had been in the back seat the entire time. The officer asked him to exit the vehicle and observed approximately three grams of marijuana in a plastic sandwich bag on the floor of the vehicle.
The driver was arrested for interfering with a police investigation and possession of marijuana and held with a $1,100 bond. Upon his arrest, he gave police a false name. When police confronted him with his identification revealing his real name, he said he did it because he could not afford another ticket, and that he had outstanding warrants.
One of those was for interfering with police in Allen Park. The passenger was issued a ticket for interfering with police.
Theater customer stunned following police brawl
A 20-year old Detroit man was arrested after allegedly throwing a punch at officers who attempted to subdue him following complaints that he had threatened employees at a movie theater Sunday night.
At 6:31 p.m. last Sunday, officers responded to a call that a customer was yelling inside MJR Allen Park Cinema, 6601 Allen Road, and had threatened a manager there.
When police asked the man to leave the theater, he became verbally abusive with them. They asked him again to leave, and his mother escorted him outside, where he continued to threaten officers. After the man attempted to start a physical fight with officers, one attempted to hold him and the man broke free and swung at both officers before running a short distance.
Officers warned the man that they would use a stun gun on him if he did not stop resisting officers. The man clenched his fists and began approaching officers. They both fired stun guns at him, but neither made contact.
After a brief struggle, both officers pulled the man to the ground, where he was handcuffed and transported to the police station. He was issued a citation for disorderly conduct and resisting arrest and charged with assaulting a police officer, which is a felony.
Dearborn
Fraudulent check written at antique show
A West Virginia woman reported being defrauded by a man during an antique show at the Ford Community & Performing Arts Center, 15801 E. Michigan Ave.
The woman, a vendor at the show, told police Nov. 8 that she had sold several items to a man on Nov. 7, and that his check for more than $2,100 was written from an account that has been closed since 2005.
She said an Arabic man in his 30s or 40s purchased several items and presented a business check as payment. The driver’s license for a 35-year-old Arabic man was shown during the purchase, but upon seeing the driver’s photo at the police station, the woman said the image was not that of the man who bought the items from her.
A black man was with the suspect and also handed out several checks to other vendors, police said.
Man sneaks behind counter, steals tobacco products
Several tobacco items were taken Nov. 6 from Walgreens, 13601 Warren.
An employee helping a customer about 1 p.m. when he saw a man behind
the counter taking the items from the tobacco section.
The employee yelled at the man, who then ran out of the store, got into a maroon Ford Taurus and drove north on Schaefer Road.
The suspect is described as white, in his late 20s or early 30s, about 5 feet 9 inches tall and weighing 140 pounds. He was wearing a dark coat, gray skull cap and khaki pants.
The employee said the theft should have been recorded on store surveillance video and that he would turn over a copy to police.
Dearborn Heights
Guns, games, computers stolen
A resident discovered several items missing from his house in the 800 block of Beech Daly when he returned home about 1:15 p.m. Nov. 16.
He had been gone for about three hours to run errands and to pick up his daughter from college. During that time the house had been ransacked.
Entry was gained through an unlocked sliding glass door. Missing were three rifles, three laptop computers, an Xbox video gaming system and several Xbox video games. Total value of the items is about $4,200.
The resident is unsure whether anything else was missing.
Man caught taking money from church, resists arrest
The custodian at St. Linus Catholic Church, 6466 North Evangeline, saw a resident take several dollar bills out of the church’s collection box about noon Nov. 16.
When he confronted the man, the suspect quickly stuffed the bills back in the box and tried to push past the custodian, who kept the suspect inside the church while someone else called police.
When officers arrived they saw something shiny in the suspect’s hand. When questioned, the man denied having anything.
The officer tried to retrieve the object, but the man struck the officer’s forearm with a closed fist. The suspect then was taken to the ground and resisted arrest by hiding his hands under his chest and stomach while lying face down.
Once arrested, the man refused to speak and remained uncooperative throughout processing. The shiny item turned out to be his car keys.
The man was arrested for larceny, assault and battery of a police officer and resisting arrest. His car was impounded.
Lincoln Park
Car break-in poorly concealed
Police were called to the 1100 block of Cleveland just before 4 a.m. Tuesday on word of a vehicle break-in in progress.
The caller said she looked out her front window and saw a 21-year-old neighbor man with a flashlight looking into her 1998 Chevrolet Blazer, which was parked in her driveway. When the alarm went off, she said the man ran across his front lawn, jumped his gate and went inside his side door. Police went to the house, and the man was uncooperative when exiting, telling officers he had been sleeping.
They then arrested him for tampering with an automobile. He already was on probation for larceny from an automobile.
Southgate
Thanks for the gum balls
A gum ball machine was discovered missing about 11:30 a.m. Monday from Toys R Us, 14333 Eureka Road.
The machine, valued at $250, last was serviced Oct. 26. It typically contains about $50 in change, employees said.
Window smashers target neighborhoods
Vehicles were damaged in several blocks during the past week.
The driver’s side mirror on a 2007 Jeep Wrangler was found damaged just before noon last Sunday. Damage was estimated at $250.
The driver’s-side door and mirror of a 2008 Saturn VUE were found damaged about 6 a.m. Nov. 13 in the 13200 block of Pullman. At 11 a.m. that day, a window was broken on a 2002 Buick in the 13100 block of Phelps.
Also that day, the window of a 2010 Kia was found broken about 11:20 a.m.in the 12800 block of Phelps, and a window was found broken on a 2001 Ford Focus in the 13200 block of Veronica about 11:15 p.m.
Taylor
Copper thieves strike
Copper plumbing and an air-conditioning unit were discovered missing about 4:40 p.m. Nov. 11 from a house in the 15800 block of Hampden.
A rear window had been broken out and the pipes removed from the basement.
Trenton
Sleeping truck driver awakened
A truck parked in a lot at the Chrysler Trenton Engine Plant, 2000 Van Horn Road, aroused suspicions early Tuesday.
A security officer approached the truck with her vehicle and had to blow the horn to get the driver out of the truck’s bedding compartment. When he finally came out, she told him he was not supposed to be parked there while waiting to make his delivery.
He then yelled at her to stop knocking on his truck. When police arrived he told them he wanted to file a complaint because he believed she may have damaged his truck.
Melvindale
Woman bitten during dog fight
A dog owner allegedly was bitten when a dog entered her property and attacked her dog.
At 4:35 p.m. Monday police responded to the 17700 block of Reed, where a dog living down the block had entered through a bent piece of fence and attacked her dog. Both dog owners attempted to separate the dogs, and the owner living in the 17700 block was bitten on both hands.
Her dog suffered injuries to its nose and a broken tooth. The injured woman declined medical treatment. Both dogs had current shot records.
Man arrested for drug possession, DUI
An 44-year-old Ohio man was arrested Tuesday after failing sobriety tests at a traffic stop.
At 2:19 p.m., officers stopped him for exceeding the speed limit while traveling south on Schaefer.
After turning onto I-75, the vehicle fishtailed and nearly spun out on the entrance ramp. When officer approached his vehicle, the man failed to open the driver’s-side window, but left the back window half open.
As the officer spoke to the driver through the back window, he noticed a marijuana pipe lying on the back seat and smelled an odor of marijuana. The officer then searched him and found a marijuana joint in a plastic bag in his pants pocket.
The officer then noticed an odor of alcohol on the man’s breath. He said he had had four drinks that night and failed subsequent sobriety tests. The results of Lopez’s breath tests were 0.139 blood-alcohol content. The legal limit in Michigan is 0.08 BAC.
The joint tested positive for marijuana and the man was arrested possession of marijuana and operating a vehicle under the influence of alcohol.
Riverview
Vehicles vandalized
Four residents reported vandalism to their vehicles last weekend.
At 8:30 a.m. Nov. 13, a resident of the 17100 block of Quarry reported finding the front driver’s-side door of his of his green 1995 Pontiac Grand Am smashed out. He said he had parked the car outside his residence at 11:30 p.m. the night before.
At 11 a.m. that day, a resident of the 17500 block of Matthews reported the driver’s-side front window of her 1991 Chrysler New Yorker had been broken. No evidence was left at the scene, but police believe it is related to the Quarry vehicle vandalism.
At 8:10 a.m. Monday a man reported the driver’s-side window of his brother-in-law’s vehicle had been broken, and that entry had been made into the vehicle. The red 1986 Toyota pickup truck had been parked in the street in the 17500 block of Reno since Nov. 12. No suspects or witnesses were located.
A resident of the 14800 block of Brookview reported scratches on the majority of the body of his 2004 Ford Taurus.
At 10:40 a.m. Nov. 13, the man said he had left his vehicle in the parking lot at 12:30 a.m. Saturday and returned at 10:30 a.m. to find scratches covering the body and two screwdrivers sticking out of the driver’s-side window frame.
A rock apparently used to scratch the vehicle was left on the hood and a small pocket knife was left on the front bumper. No suspects or witnesses were located.
Wyandotte
Money, equipment missing from restaurant
A hamburger restaurant allegedly was burglarized overnight Monday.
The owner of Joe’s Hamburger Stand, 125 Elm, reported at 8:02 a.m. Monday that someone had broken in sometime Sunday night or Monday morning.
Approximately $100 was missing from the cash register along with a laptop, fax machine and printer, valued together at $1,000. The doorknob to the west side door of the establishment had been damaged and was the likely entry point, police said.
(Compiled by Chris Jackett, Andrea Poteet and Tom Tigani.)