Allen Park
Accused shoplifter transported to hospital
A man accused of shoplifting from Home Depot, 3163 Fairlane Drive, required medical attention after suffering from an apparent overdose upon being detained by store loss prevention officers.
At 1:10 p.m. Dec. 2, officers arrived at the store, where loss prevention officers said they witnessed the 43-year-old Dearborn resident remove a $9 tape measurer from its package and clip it onto his pants, then pass all registers without paying for it.
The loss prevention officers said they attempted to handcuff the man, but he resisted. After they secured the handcuffs on him, he began to breathe heavily and they called the Fire Department to assist.
Emergency personnel treated the man for a drug overdose and he momentarily lost consciousness. When he came to, he ripped the IV out of his hand and told firefighters and police officers that he was sick from heroin. He was transported to Oakwood Hospital & Medical Center.
Reindeer, snowman figures slashed
A variety of Christmas decorations were vandalized in front of a house in the 9700 block of Carter overnight Sunday.
The homeowner said that when he awoke at 6 a.m. Sunday morning, he noticed his decorations were damaged. The heads had been broken off of two lighted reindeer that cost about $20 each.
The necks on two larger reindeer figures costing $40 each also had been broken. A 5-foot-tall lighted Christmas tree figure valued at $70 was bent in half. A large snowman figure had been stabbed and had two slash marks across its stomach.
Two similar incidents of vandalism also occurred in the same area on the same night.
Dearborn Heights
Son suspected of stealing computer
A resident in the 5300 block of Raymond believes her son may have taken a computer from her house Dec. 3.
She came home about 5 p.m. to find the back door had been forced open, causing $200 in damage to the lock and door jamb. A black computer valued at $400 was taken, but everything else, including money sitting out on the computer table, was left behind.
The woman told police she suspects her 21-year-old son, who lives out of state and has a history of stealing and breaking and entering, had returned and taken the computer. She said he had contacted her more than two weeks prior wanting the computer, which he had left as collateral for money he owed her. He also had returned to the area recently for a short visit, but never lived at or had been inside the house where the theft occurred.
Additionally, the woman said she has a German shepherd that bites anyone besides her and her son.
Unattended purse stolen, returned at different location minus wallet
A woman’s purse was stolen about 9 a.m. Dec. 5 after she left it unattended in a shopping cart for a moment at Saturn Foods, 25200 Van Born.
The burgundy purse, which contained a cell phone and a pink wallet with $100 cash and a $30 grocery store gift card inside, was found and turned over to loss prevention at Kroger, 7000 Monroe Blvd. in Taylor. However, the wallet, cash and gift card were missing.
The theft and return both were caught on surveillance video, although it is not clear whether different people are in the two videos.
Dearborn
Teen grudge leads to unarmed robbery
A 17-year-old resident was robbed about 9:15 p.m. Dec. 6 by people he knew.
The boy was purchasing an air freshener for his vehicle at the Marathon gas station, 14243 Ford Road, when two men he knew came into the station and told someone on the phone that the victim was there.
A few minutes later, another 17-year-old resident entered the station and attempted to attack the victim before the two men, ages 19 and 22, held the primary suspect back.
The victim said the suspect blamed him for his recent job loss from a video game store. The victim recently had obtained a personal protection order against the suspect, but it hadn’t been served yet.
The angry teen demanded that the victim give him all his money or he would kill him. The victim handed the attacker $70, and all three aggressors then fled eastbound in a silver Ford Windstar. The station clerk witnessed the entire incident.
Before the victim called police, a friend called and said the vehicle was in the parking lot at the former Kroger parking lot, less than a mile away at 13661 Colson. There police discovered the three males from the gas station, along with another teenage boy and a woman. They also found a marijuana blunt inside a cigarette box, so all five suspects were arrested.
Wrong turn reveals warrants, gun
About 8 p.m. Dec. 6, an officer witnessed a westbound 2002 Dodge turn into a one-way exit at Mongolian Grill, 22115 Michigan Ave., and discovered that three of the six people in the vehicle had outstanding arrest warrants for various crimes.
All three men were 21 or 22 years old and from Detroit or Inkster. Three women from Detroit, Inkster and Romulus accompanied them.
Police searched the vehicle and each passenger for contraband to no avail, but when the Dodge was towed, the towing company employee lifted up a black shirt from the center console, and a 9 mm semiautomatic handgun fell out.
It was registered to the Detroit woman, who was released at the scene. The arrested suspects refused to talk about the gun; questioning ended when one demanded a lawyer.
Lincoln Park
Would-be burglar chased away
Police were called about 11:20 p.m. Tuesday to the 1700 block of Cleveland on word that a resident had locked herself upstairs in her house because someone was trying to break in.
She said she heard rattling noises as though someone was trying to get in through the back door.
Officers arrived to find a 21-year-old resident in the backyard wearing a dark-colored coat with some type of fur around the hood. He jumped the fence and headed southeast on foot.
Officers pursued through several yards and then east on Mill toward the railroad tracks. They ordered him several times to stop, but he refused. One heard a fence rattle in the 1700 block of Mill and saw the man running directly at him. They ordered him to the ground at gunpoint and arrested him.
GPS gone, but alleged thief caught
A 17-year-old Detroit boy was caught about 4 p.m. last Sunday as he allegedly stole a Global Positioning System unit from a 2008 Dodge Ram in the 2900 block of Green.
Officers responded to a call saying that a white male was inside the truck. When questioned in the area of Lafayette and Progress, he told them he had been inside his friend’s Ford F-150. They took him back to the caller’s neighborhood, where a witness identifed him as the person inside the Dodge truck.
The Dodge owner’s son said he had borrowed the truck with permission, and that he had left it unlocked for an hour or so to find items thrown around the inside and the GPS unit was missing.
The Detroit boy asked if last Sunday’s incident would affect his probation out of 25th District Court. He was cited on a misdemeanor charge of larceny from an automobile and will be arraigned there Dec. 21.
Southgate
Ex may have swiped AC unit
An air-conditioning unit was discovered missing just before 10 a.m. Monday from a vacant house in the 13200 block of Longtin.
The owner said the house has been vacant for two years, and that the unit was intact Dec. 2. She said her real estate agent told her it was missing.
The owner believes her ex-husband may be responsible for the theft.
Taylor
Hug for help proves costly
A Brownstown Township man became a robbery victim Nov. 22 when he stopped to help a couple on the side of the road on Telegraph Road just north of the I-75 connector.
Police said a white man and a white woman were standing near their broken-down vehicle when the Brownstown man stopped. The victim said the woman hugged him several times after he helped.
After he got back in his car and drove off, the victim realized his wallet had been taken from his front pants pocket.
Copper cleaned out from site
About $5,000 worth of copper was discovered missing about 7:30 a.m. Nov. 29 from a storage container at the Racho School demolition site at 9550 Monroe.
Entry apparently was gained through a cut chain link fence on the southwest side of the site. A neighbor reported seeing a silver pickup truck parked on the west side of the construction area between Nov. 24 and the time the theft was discovered.
Trenton
Communities converge on car thieves
Police assisted officers other communities in capturing two men and a woman who allegedly stole two vehicles within an hour last Sunday.
About 1:10 p.m., Flat Rock called to report that a red Dodge Ram with a Christmas tree had been stolen and was headed north on Telegraph Road. A Trenton officer arrived in time to place the handcuffs on a man who had been stopped by Woodhaven and Brownstown Township police at Walmart, 23800 Allen Road in Woodhaven.
About a half hour later, Woodhaven police said the driver had been dropped off in Flat Rock by friends who had stolen a green Jeep out of Monroe County, and that the friends were en route to pick up the man who police had just arrested.
A Brownstown officer spotted the Jeep headed east on West Road near I-75 and attempted to stop it with assistance from Woodhaven. The Jeep didn’t stop, however, and continued into Trenton, where it turned north on Edsel, then south on Gorno, crossed West again and continued onto St. Paul, a dead-end street, where it struck a parked vehicle and caromed east onto Theodore, another dead-end street. The driver of the Jeep then headed over the curb and came out onto southbound Fort Street past a waiting Trenton patrol car.
Pursuit then continued through the first turnaround south of West Road, north on Fort and along Stanley, Trumbull and William R, where the Jeep drove onto the grass at Teifer Park and lost power.
The driver, who was carrying a cell phone and a bank card belonging to the Jeep’s owner, was arrested, along with a female passenger.
Melvindale
Window busted by rock
A rock was thrown through the back window of a vehicle parked in the 19200 block of Allen between Friday afternoon and 1 p.m. last Sunday.
The owner asked that police pay special attention to the area to prevent future damage.
Abandoned building vandalized
An abandoned building in the 17700 block of Dix was vandalized over the weekend.
At 12:25 p.m. on Monday, the property owner said that when she arrived at the building Friday, she found her office in disarray.
Several light fixtures had been broken and some fire extinguishers had been discharged. Nothing was missing from the building and no point of entry to the building was found.
Riverview
Debit card stolen
A resident came to the station Dec. 3 to report that someone had used her debit card number to set up an online payment account in her name.
The woman said at 4:15 p.m. that she had received a phone call earlier that day from someone who sold a $30 gift card to an online music service to someone using the account saying the purchase seemed suspicious.
The woman discovered two other purchases for $28 and $135 also were made from the account. The woman canceled the debit card.
Wyandotte
Engine parts disappear from business
Thirty-two boxes of engine parts were reported stolen from a business last week.
A representative from Iverson Industries called at 3:16 p.m. Monday to report that the boxes of Ford manifolds valued at $40,000 were stolen from the business at 580 of Hillsdale between June and October. Each box contains 60 to 80 manifolds.
He said the crew worked overnight in the building during the summer months. The company had hired a private investigator to check local junkyards for the manifolds but none were found. No suspects or evidence were located.
Liquor licker arrested
A 44-year-old resident was arrested last week outside a liquor store for disorderly conduct after he allegedly urinated in public and solicited money from customers.
At 1:12 p.m. Saturday, officers responded to a liquor store in the 1200 block of Eureka after a call of a drunken man bothering customers. The caller said the man also had dropped a liquor bottle on the floor of the store, and that after it broke, the man leaned down to lick the spilled alcohol off the floor.
When the officer arrived, he saw the man outside the store asking passers-by for money. He also saw the man expose his penis and urinate on the sidewalk in plain view.
Officers arrested the man, who admitted to asking another man to buy the bottle for him. The man also admitted to dropping the bottle and licking up its contents.
The man also admitted receiving $1 from a woman after telling her he did not have a bed to sleep in for the holidays. Officers said they knew the man lived in a fully furnished residence.