Allen Park
Two battery thefts in store
Three people were arrested for stealing batteries in two separate incidents last week.
A Detroit man was arrested at 3 p.m. last Saturday after allegedly stealing batteries at Home Depot, 3163 Fairlane Drive.
A loss prevention officer saw a 38-year old man conceal a large quantity of AA batteries in his clothing and walk past all cash registers without paying for them.
Upon arrest, the suspect gave police a false name and date of birth.
He was charged with retail fraud, a second-degree misdemeanor.
At 1:34 p.m. Tuesday, police arrested two Taylor men, ages 24 and 28, after two loss prevention officers saw them each conceal one 18-volt battery and walk past all registers without paying for it. The batteries are valued at $99 each.
The men were charged with second- and third-degree retail fraud, respectively.
Wallet swiped in parking lot?
A woman said her wallet was stolen last week in the parking lot of Meijer, 3565 Fairlane Drive, while she was loading her purchases into her vehicle.
The woman said she returned home from the store at approximately 5:30 p.m. Nov. 22 to find her wallet missing.
She reported having the wallet when she made her purchases. She told police she believed she had not noticed an unknown suspect reach into her purse and take the wallet as she was loading the vehicle.
The incident was reported seven days later. She said she canceled all but one of her credit cards, but one was used without her consent before she could cancel it.
Dearborn
Senior robbed by household employee
An 87-year-old resident was robbed by an Allen Park man who occasionally does work around the house for him.
About 5:30 a.m. Nov. 30, the resident responded to a knock on his front door in the 25000 block of Doxtator. Once the door was slightly open, the suspect pushed his way in and demanded money and beer. The resident said he had no money, but that there was beer in the kitchen.
The two men went into the kitchen and the resident opened the refrigerator, at which time the suspect opened the cabinet and grabbed a gray metal box the resident usually keeps money in. However, it was empty that day.
The suspect searched the living room for money before taking a 12-gauge semiautomatic rifle off a rack on the wall and leaving. He drove a gold Chrysler sedan east on Doxtator and turned north onto Silvery Lane.
The victim then called the suspect’s sister, who said she had dropped off the suspect about 5 a.m. at their grandmother’s house, which is nearby in the 56700 block of Silvery Lane.
The sister said the suspect often borrows their grandmother’s gold Chrysler. No one was at the suspect’s house when police arrived, but he has been arrested since.
Suspicious caller seeks personal information
A man calling himself “David” made several calls to a resident about 9:30 a.m. Nov. 27.
The caller from an 846 area code said he was with MGM Grand Casino and told the woman she had won $300,000 and that he needed her address so he could drop off a cashier’s check within two hours.
The woman said she wasn’t interested and hung up the phone.
The man called again and said the amount she won was now $999,000. He asked for the resident’s e-mail address, but she hung up again.
The woman told police she does not go to the casino, and that she had not entered any contests in which she could have won money.
Lincoln Park
Car break-in costly
Nearly $3,200 in jewelry and electronics was taken early Monday from a 2008 Dodge Avenger parked in the 1500 block of Lincoln.
The car was parked in the road about 11 p.m. last Sunday and had been left unlocked by the owner. When she returned to it about 4:30 a.m. saw the car had been ransacked, and that a yellow gold/diamond bracelet valued at $3,000 was missing, as was an MP3 player and her driver’s license, Social Security card, credit cards and a makeup bag.
Robber gets phone, cough syrup
A cell phone and a bottle of cough syrup were taken by a robber last Sunday in the parking lot of Meijer, 3710 Dix.
The victim, a 22-year-old resident, said he had bought the cough syrup for his wife about 3 a.m., and that as he got within about 25 feet of his car, a man came up and punched him in the back of the head. The victim said it felt as though the suspect had keys in his hand during the punch.
The victim fell forward and then turned around, only to have the suspect strike him a second time in his left eye. The victim fought back and placed one hand over his wallet in his rear pants pocket, and his other hand over his front pants pocket, where he had $300 in cash.
The suspect reached into the man’s other front pants pocket and removed his cell phone, then grabbed the shopping bag containing the cough syrup and ran toward Dix.
The victim suffered a bruised eye and a small laceration on the back of his head. The suspect is described as a black man in his late 30s weighing about 200 pounds with thin, dark hair. He was wearing a red and black coat, dirty blue jeans and white shoes.
Southgate
Cash removed from restaurant
Thieves made off with $500 cash last week from the Olympic Flame restaurant, 12250 Dix.
An employee said he arrived just before 7 a.m. Nov. 25 and found the front door glass smashed. The cash register was on the floor and its drawer was missing.
Laundry room coin boxes emptied
A maintenance worker at Fountain Park Apartments North,11501 Dorchester, found the top of a dryer in the bushes in the northern part of the complex.
When he went to the laundry room he found that a dryer was missing its top, and its change collection box had been forced open and emptied. Also, wires were cut and the water was disconnected from a washer in the laundry room.
An officer responding to the scene found the top of another dryer in bushes near the laundry room.
Repair costs to machines were unknown; about $100 in change was missing.
Riverview
Man denies passing curious bank slip
A Lincoln Park man allegedly passed a deposit slip to a teller with the words “someone is trying to rob me” at Credit Union Services, 19334 Fort Street, Nov. 24.
Shortly before 7 p.m., tellers contacted police, saying they found the slip while cashing out at the end of the day. One teller said she remembered the man whose name appeared on the slip, and that he had withdrawn $100 from his account. She said the man did not say anything at the time about someone trying to rob him. Surveillance footage of the transaction showed nothing out of the ordinary.
Lincoln Park police contacted the man, who said he did not remember withdrawing money from the bank that day, and that it must have been someone else. Officers said he sounded “loopy” during the conversation.
Riverview officers were unable to contact the man, but left a message on his answering machine asking him to contact them if someone had withdrawn money from his account without his consent.
Intoxicated driver arrested
A man was arrested Nov. 26 for operating a vehicle while intoxicated and driving with a suspended license after another driver witnessed him driving erratically on Sibley.
At 3:39 p.m., an officer found the man driving west on Sibley at Fort. The officer witnessed the vehicle pull into the drive through line at a fast-food restaurant, pay for and receive food, then make an overly wide, slow right turn into a nearby shopping center. As he pulled into the parking lot, he nearly struck the curb. He then drove southwest against yellow traffic control lines and parking spaces before stopping near the fast-food restaurant.
When the officer approached the vehicle, the man showed poor dexterity in attempting to produce his license and registration, and then handed the officer his credit card and Medicaid card instead. After the officer asked again, the driver was able to produce his license only.
His speech was slurred and he could not answer basic questions about where he was going to or coming from. He told the officer he had not had any alcohol but had taken two pills. The officer found a pill bottle containing Alpazolam on his person.
The man failed field sobriety tests, but had a blood-alcohol content of 0.00 percent. Police obtained a search warrant to test his blood and found that his license was suspended, and that the license plate was registered to another vehicle he owned.
Trenton
Bad check casher stopped
Police were called about 3 p.m. Wednesday to Monroe Bank & Trust, 2410 West Road, on word that a 20-year-old woman was trying to cash a bad check.
The manager pointed the woman out to police. She was trying to cash a $980 payroll check from a local company that was made out to another woman.
The teller said she had cashed a check for another woman about an hour before. When the woman now in the bank tried to cash the check from the same business, the teller realized it was bad and called police. The manager confirmed with the company officials that the check was bad.
Several other branches reported being defrauded within an hour that day by several different suspects driving a gray Toyota or a black Cadillac. Its South Rockwood branch had been defrauded by the same woman, whose record showed an outstanding arrest warrant out of Detroit.
Police then arrested her.
Wyandotte
Husband, wife, booked
A woman and her husband were arrested at 9:15 a.m. Tuesday after officers responded to a call from the state Department of Corrections saying the woman, 47, had an outstanding warrant for embezzlement.
When officers arrived at the residence in the 2200 block of Seventh, the husband, 43, said the wife was at the doctor’s office, but that he did not know the address. As officers searched the residence, the husband became increasingly agitated and began making cell phone calls to a person he described as his wife’s probation officer.
Officers, believing he was contacting his wife to warn her, asked him to hang up the phone.
The woman then exited one of the rooms, identified herself, and was arrested. The husband become more verbally abusing and threatening to the officers and did not sit down when he was asked. He then was arrested.
Crack found in home
Narcotics and paraphernalia were found on a man arrested after a domestic dispute Tuesday.
A flake of what appeared to be crack cocaine, along with a crack pipe and other paraphernalia, were found in a home in the 2800 block of Biddle after police returned for the second time to locate a man accused of physically assaulting his live-in girlfriend.
The 44 year-old-woman called the office shortly after 2 p.m. Tuesday and said the fight began after the boyfriend, 30 asked her mother, who lives with the couple, for money for cigarettes. He allegedly struck her in the forehead and torso and choked her with his hands until she passed out.
Officers observed bruising, swelling and redness on her forehead and neck. When they responded to the home, the boyfriend was not home. When they returned later, they asked him if he had any narcotics and he said he did.
They located the crack flake inside a cigarette wrapper and the paraphernalia under a sink.
Taylor
Mower, tools missing from garage
A lawnmower and three drills were taken Nov. 26 from a garage in the 5800 block of Vivian.
The resident said she left about 5:30 p.m. and returned at 8:30 p.m. to find the garage door open. She said it had been locked with padlock that now was lying on the ground undamaged.
A neighbor reported seeing a silver Ford Econoline van pulling out of the resident’s driveway minutes before the resident returned home. The van then turned north onto Van Born and drove out of sight.
Broken window invites thief to van
Tools were removed from a worker’s van Nov. 23 at Coppertree Apartments, 12555 Pine.
A worker told police he had parked his van that morning at the east end of a driveway and was getting his tools together when he noticed a green Ford F-150 parked nearby occupied by a white man in the driver’s seat. The truck bore what appeared to be a West Coast Choppers insignia.
The worker was inside an apartment doing repairs and returned to his van about 1:45 p.m. to find the tools missing, along with a pack of cigarettes and some change from the console.
The worker said his truck was locked, but that the left rear window has been missing since being broken in an unrelated incident.
Dearborn Heights
Man takes property left behind by neighbor
A house in the 25500 block of Amherst was robbed by a neighbor sometime between 8 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. Nov. 30.
The homeowner had just moved to Tennessee the previous week. His who is currently a resident, had locked up the house about 8 a.m.
Upon returning to the house about 1:30 p.m., the homeowner’s sister found two neighbors outside observing that the attached garage’s side door was open, and that the door from the garage to the house appeared destroyed.
The two neighbors said they thought squatters were inside and that another neighbor from the 25600 block of Amherst had been telling people it was OK to take property from the house.
The sister discovered a number of items missing, including a patio set; fire pit; two bicycles; a television; a tool box and two containers, each which included various tools; an air conditioner; and a stereo. The total value was about $3,900. The dishwasher in the kitchen also had been disconnected.
When the neighbor from the 25600 block was questioned, he said he had talked to the homeowner before he left and believed he had permission to take anything left behind, but would return everything if that was not the case. All of the items were in his garage and returned, except for the patio set, which was in his neighbor’s backyard.
He then was arrested for home invasion.
Man caught stealing tree, replants it with officer’s help
An officer patrolling near Hines and Beech Daly saw a Livonia man driving a blue 1996 Buick four-door with a 7-foot-tall pine tree sticking out the back away from the woodline in Hines Wallaceville Park.
A pink ribbon was on the tree, indicating it was part of a tree-planting program.
The suspect said he was taking the tree home to use as a privacy barrier between his and his neighbor’s yard. He said a man working at Wayne County Lightfest said it was OK to take the tree “as long as it wasn’t an obvious specimen.”
The suspect was a former landscaper who said the tree was worth about $30, and that he knew that type of tree had a shallow root bed.
The officer issued a ticket for larceny of a tree, and the two traveled 80 yards into the forest and 10 feet from a foot bridge to replant the tree together in a spot where it appeared to have been taken from.
The suspect was released at the scene and told to contact the 19th District Court.
Melvindale
Door broken, dog missing
A resident of the 24700 block of Outer Drive called at 4:54 p.m. Tuesday to report that his back door had been broken and his dog was missing from his backyard.
Entry was not made into the home.
A resident down the street told police he saw a skinny white male and skinny white female with blonde hair who was wearing a red and white jacket in the aforementioned backyard at approximately 12:45 p.m. Tuesday. He said the suspects tampered with the victim’s back door for a few minutes before leaving in a Ford Contour. He said the dog ran into the woods behind the house.
Rock thrown through window
A resident of the 19600 block of Allen said his vehicle was vandalized between midnight and 2 a.m. Nov. 25.
The resident said he parked his car near a gas station in the area, and that when he came back to it, a large rock had been thrown through his rear windshield, which was smashed out.