Allen Park
Cigarette bandit strikes
More than $1,390 worth of cigarettes were stolen Wednesday from the BP gas station at 16059 Southfield.
Shortly before 5 a.m., officers arrived and saw the window on the west side of the building smashed.
Cigarette packs were scattered on the floor behind the cash register. An employee said more than 200 packs of cigarettes had been taken.
He did not know if any money had been stolen, but noticed the surveillance system may have been tampered with.
Vehicle damaged after fight
A 35-year-old Taylor woman is suspected of damaging an Allen Park woman’s vehicle after a fight in the latter woman’s apartment Feb. 4.
The woman’s 1999 Plymouth Voyager sustained damage to the windshield, driver’s-side window and driver’s-side door. The two front tires were flattened.
The woman said she did not see the Taylor woman damage her vehicle, but heard a loud smashing noise right after she left the apartment.
Dearborn Heights
Checkbook taken from house
A man returned home from work Feb. 5 to find that his house in the 22000 block of Dartmouth had been broken into.
The man told police that his roommate, who moved out two months earlier, had called him at work that morning to retrieve the roommate’s checkbook, which was on the kitchen counter. The man said he would call the roommate when he returned home in order to let him in.
When the man returned at 3 p.m., however, he found the front door kicked in. Its frame was damaged and the doorknob was twisted off. The man said he tried to call the roommate upon returning home, but that he didn’t answer.
The resident said the checkbook was the only thing missing.
Purse heist at hookah bar
A woman’s purse was stolen at a birthday party Feb. 6 at Cloud Nine Hookah Lounge, 25633 W. Warren.
She said the purse was taken after she had placed it on a couch.
The manager said he would look for the purse, which contained $30 cash, her driver’s license, a debit card, the keys to her vehicle, a camera and an MP3 player.
Money, bike grips taken from skate park
The door on the southeast side of Transitions Skate Park, 5618 Van Born, was found propped open Feb 1.
The owner found $230 in cash and change missing from both cash registers, and three bicycle hand grips were missing from a filing cabinet. The security system also had been tampered with.
Dearborn
Arrest leads to weapons discovery
Two men were arrested Feb. 5 following an assault at 10:30 p.m. on two 18-year-old Dearborn Heights women near the corner of Ford Road and Greenfield.
The men drove off in a red 2000 Ford Focus after the incident, and one of the women followed the men in a car while on the phone with police.
The caller said one of the men pulled a BB gun out after realizing they were being followed.
When caught, one suspect confessed to tossing away an air gun that he said was using for protection.
He led police to the front yard of a house in the 5000 block of Mead where the gun was found, along with a black folding knife and another knife.
Armed robbery suspects caught
Two 17-year-old boys from Livonia and Inkster and a 19-year-old man from Detroit robbed a man in front of his house Feb. 4 in the 6000 block of Steadman.
The man said two of the three approached him from opposite sides. He said the car they were driving, a tan, four-door 1986 Chevrolet, was parked strangely.
He said one of the boys had aimed a revolver at his chest.
The victim ran into his house to call police and told them the other assailant tried to punch him in the face, but only grazed him.
The suspects were arrested later following a traffic stop. A cell phone charging cord, a laptop computer and a DVD were found in their vehicle.
Lincoln Park
Gymgoer thwarts car burglary
A resident returned to her 2004 Chevrolet Trailblazer on Tuesday just in time to keep her purse from being stolen at Fitness USA, 3606 Fort St.
She had gone inside the gym about 2:30 p.m. to try to use the pool and was told the pool was closed. She activated her remote starter and noticed someone standing on the driver’s side of her vehicle who apparently was startled by the activation and got into a white van, which then drove off.
Her vehicle’s rear driver’s-side window had been smashed, however, causing $300 in damage. Her purse still was lying on the floor in the back seat and nothing was taken, police said.
Snowblower disappears
A snowblower valued at $200 was taken between 10 p.m. Feb. 4 and 9:15 a.m. Feb. 5 from a garage in the 2200 block of Rose.
Tracks were found in the snow along the sidewalk to the house’s driveway.
Southgate
Break-in nets jewelry
Jewelry of an undetermined value was taken Monday from a house in the 12100 block of Helen.
The owner said he had been gone since 6:30 a.m. that day and returned at 5:30 p.m. to find that a double-pane window at the rear had been broken in order to gain access.
Footprints were found in the snow, and several items had been tossed onto beds and floors. Several closet doors had been left open.
Purse pilfered
A purse was stolen Monday from a patron at Planet Fitness, 13591 Eureka Road.
She was inside from 8:30 to 9:30 a.m. and returned to her 2008 Ford Fusion to find her purse missing from the back seat. It was valued at $100 and contained a debit card, a Social Security card, a cell phone headset and a checkbook.
Melvindale
Copper thieves stopped
Officers watched two Melvindale men enter the property of Reilly Plating, 17760 Clarann, and climb onto the roof in an attempt to steal copper wiring Feb. 4.
The men, 39 and 29, ignored police warnings to come down from the roof and were arrested. Officers found a stack of copper wiring on the side of the building, as well as a pair of bolt cutters.
One of the men had an Allen wrench and a pocketknife in his pants pockets.
Riverview
Apartment broken into twice
A woman’s apartment in the 17400 block of Fort Street was broken into twice within the past few weeks.
On Jan. 30, the woman said she noticed $150 missing from her apartment.
She said she had been too afraid to stay there and left, returning Monday. Upon her return, she saw the apartment ransacked. She did not know if anything was missing.
Taylor
Copper thieves hit eight houses
A Trenton real estate agency reported last Sunday that copper plumbing had been removed in recent weeks from eight of its listed properties in Taylor.
Houses struck were in the 23400 block of Baske, the 11100 block of Katherine, the 23400 block of Newcastle, the 8300 block of Huron, the 6500 block of Polk, the 20000 block of Leroy, the 5800 block of Mayflower and in the 13500 block of McGuire.
Trenton
Card fraud reported
A Marian Street resident reported Feb. 2 that one of her credit cards had been used fraudulently on Jan. 24 to charge $337 at a Meijer store.
She since has canceled the card.
Wyandotte
Painkillers found on erratic driver
Two prescription pain tablets were found Monday on a woman stopped for driving erratically on southbound Biddle.
Police saw her white Dodge Stratus cross the yellow divider line, pulled her over and asked for identification. She said she had none.
Police said she had a small carbon dioxide canister in her hand, and that others were scattered throughout her car.
The officer could see her driver’s license sitting in her open wallet in the vehicle. She handed the license to the officer and told him she would get in trouble after he checked her record.
The license came up as having been revoked several times. The woman passed all field sobriety tests. She was arrested for driving with a suspended license and cited for possession of the tablets, which were found after her arrest. The canisters were not seized, as they are not a controlled substance.
Nude man cited
An 83-year-old man was cited for indecent exposure Feb. 3 after he was seen masturbating in the front window of his house in the 800 block of Hudson.
An 18-year-old Lincoln Park woman reported the man after she saw him standing in the window nude from the waist down as she drove down the street on her way to pick up her 17-year-old friend. On the way back, the pair saw the man again, and he appeared to be masturbating.
Officers spoke with his neighbor, who said he and his wife had seen similar behavior from the man before. The man denied masturbating, saying he was “sunning” his genitals.
Police warned that being nude in clear view of the street is not permitted and cited him.