Allen Park
‘Clean’ getaway foiled
A 39-year-old Wyandotte woman was arrested April 24 after shoplifting $137 worth of items from Meijer, 3565 Fairlane.
About 7 p.m. that day, a loss prevention officer at the store watched the woman conceal a pair of women’s shoes valued at $40 in her purse and place the empty shoebox back on the shelf. She then placed two T-shirts into her purse as well.
The woman was stopped after attempting to leave the store without paying for any of the items. She told an officer she had other items hidden in her shirt, including two packages of denture adhesive valued together at$9, four packages of deodorant ($14) and assorted lotions, body sprays and soaps.
Dearborn Heights
Vacant houses hit by thieves
Two men were arrested April 22 for allegedly stripping vacant houses in two city blocks.
One suspect, a 42-year-old Detroit resident, was caught taking apart an air conditioner condensing unit from a house in the 6000 block of Heyden. He told police his boss told him to remove the air conditioner, but couldn’t provide them with any work authorization.
The motor and the cover from the compressor were missing.
A second suspect, who has not been identified, was caught at the corner of Ann Arbor Trail and Vaughn. He told police a house in the 20000 block of Fairview was broken into and water pipes were stolen.
Home invasion nets copper pipes
Copper pipes were stolen between noon April 7 and noon April 15 from a house in the 24000 block of Hanover.
The homeowner lives in another state and is trying to sell the house.
Police checked the house April 16 and noticed the front-door lockbox was gone, the handle was damaged and the back door was open.
Copper pipes were removed from the water heater and the basement was partially flooded.
A piece of the wall near the garage door opener was cut out to get into the garage, but nothing was stolen.
Suspect sought in money dispute
A Farmington Hills man allegedly barged into a house about 1 a.m. last Sunday in the 8000 block of Riverdale asking for money.
A 32-year-old Dearborn Heights woman was getting some items from her car when the man asked if the other victim, a 43-year-old Heights man, was home.
After finding out the resident was home, the suspect pushed the woman out of the way, entered the house and threatened the man, asking him for an unspecified amount of money.
Following a brief struggle, the suspect fled in a 1997 Chevrolet Monte Carlo after learning that police were called.
Melvindale
What a crock
A crock-style slow cooker was taken Tuesday afternoon from an apartment in the 3500 block of Oakwood.
The resident said she got a text message from a friend who said that the friend had just left a new slow cooker in front of the resident’s apartment door. The resident was in the lobby when she received the text and walked up to her apartment to retrieve the cooker.
On the way she passed a tall man in his 40s or 50s carrying a slow cooker. She said she recognized him as a resident of the complex, but does not know his name.
When she arrived at her apartment there was no slow cooker there.
Lincoln Park
Video game system swiped
Several hundred dollars’ worth of electronics were taken last week from a 2008 Dodge Ram truck in the 2100 block of Ford Boulevard.
The owner said that sometime between the night of April 22 and the morning of April 23, a video game system valued at $200 was taken, along with three games valued at $30 apiece, a $30 case, a cell phone headset ($40) and a cell phone ($50).
Payoff visit ends with stolen glasses
A pair of designer sunglasses valued at $1,600 was taken Monday from a 25-year-old resident who went to a bar parking lot to meet a man who owed him money.
The resident said he received a call from an acquaintance at 11 p.m. saying he was waiting in his vehicle in the parking lot a bar on Dix, and had the $10 he owed the resident.
As the resident leaned on the vehicle while talking to his acquaintance, a black male passenger in the front seat reached over and grabbed the sunglasses off the resident’s face. The vehicle then exited the parking lot onto Dix, and the resident let go of the passenger-side door when his left knee struck the curb of the road.
The vehicle headed north on Dix. The resident suffered scrapes and abrasions but did not require medical care.
Purse with license, cash, was in stolen car
A 2000 Honda Civic containing its owner’s purse was taken between 9 p.m. last Sunday and 11 a.m. Monday from the 1500 block of Ferris.
The car was recovered in Detroit about 6:30 p.m. Monday and was returned to its owner. Its steering column was damaged.
The purse and its contents were valued at $650. They included a driver’s license, a Social Security card, house keys and cash.
Southgate
Vehicle de-wheeled
Four tires and rims were taken sometime between 12:15 and 8:50 a.m. April 22 from a 2011 vehicle parked in the 15800 block of Goddard Road.
The missing items are valued at $2,000.
‘Uncool’ thieves strike seven times
Air-conditioning units were taken from seven houses sometime during the past week in the 12600 block of Second.
The units are valued at $1,500 each.
Window vandals go on spree
Vehicle windows were shattered on five city streets April 22 by thrown landscaping blocks and other concrete items.
Damage was found to vehicles in the 13300, 13400 and 13500 blocks of Oakdale; the 14700 block of Kennebec; the 13100 block of Irene; the 13500 block of Mulberry; and the 14700 block of Yorkshire.
Taylor
Bowling outing turns costly
An apartment in the 14300 block of Bailey was robbed while the resident was out bowling early last Sunday.
The resident’s daughter checked the apartment about 1 a.m., found the south door had been forced in and called her mother.
Dresser drawers in a bedroom had been rummaged through; $500 cash and a liquor bottle filled with change were missing, along with a gold ring, a diamond ring and the daughter’s laptop computer.
The liquor bottle had been emptied and was found later in the backyard.
Metal bandits brave high voltage
Metal fixtures from electrical equipment were discovered missing April 22 at the former Taylor Center High School, 24751 Wick Road.
Police were called when electricity to the adjoining Taylor School District bus garage was out, and the district’s master electrician discovered the pieces missing. He took officers to the basement and showed them that copper bus boxes had been removed, along with aluminum lugs from wires.
Because of the complexity of the theft and the high voltage of the system, police believe the thieves were well versed in electrical expertise and likely spent a good deal of time in the basement.
Cash disappears
About $2,800 cash was the only thing missing last week after the burglary of a house in the 16400 block of Weddel.
The break-in occurred between 7 a.m. and 11 p.m. April 20. Police said there were no signs of forced entry.
Riverview
Motorcycle missing
A black and purple miniature motorcycle was discovered missing from outside an apartment in the 17000 block of Quarry Road last Sunday.
The cycle, valued at $200, was parked on the grass the night before. The owner found it missing at about 2 p.m. Sunday.
Trenton
Women write bad checks
Three women used fraudulent checks to buy gift cards and clothing items April 19 at Walgreens, 1700 West Road.
The store manager said the three entered between 7 and 7:30 p.m. and used the checks, which totaled $289. Surveillance video captured the incident.
All three women were black. One is described as thin and somewhat masculine looking, another was pregnant and wore her hair in braids and was clad in a charcoal gray tweed coat. The third wore a turquoise jogging suit and a black coat.
Company loss-prevention officials said the three also may have targeted stores in Riverview and Wyandotte. The store manager deactivated the gift cards after realizing the checks were bad.
Two of the suspects are wanted on multiple traffic offense warrants out of Detroit.
Boys get into vacant house
Police went about 2:30 p.m. April 22 to the 2200 block of Fourth on word of two juveniles playing inside a foreclosed house.
They did not find anyone inside after arriving, but spoke with the caller, who said her 9-year-old grandson had been inside and that one of his friends poured gasoline on the floors. She said she feared the house might catch fire, and that she also had called the Fire Department.
Police found a broken window on the house’s north side with an old pool ladder pushed up to it. Numerous footprints and glass were found inside, and a window to the crawl space was broken as well. The garage door was open, but no one was inside. Blue paint was found on the south side.
Another woman came to the police station later to report that her son also had been inside the house, and that a third boy had broken out the window with a rock and had shot out lights inside the house with a BB gun.
The woman’s son said the third boy poured what they thought was gasoline on the floor, but that none of them had anything to do with the paint.
Guns gone
A handgun and a shotgun were discovered missing last week from a house in the 3700 block of Trumbull.
The resident said her son had kept the guns there while serving in the military in Iraq, and that he recently told her he was going to take the guns to his house in Wyandotte. When she went to the closet where they had been kept in preparation for his arrival, she could not find them and searched the house five times.
She said there were no signs of forced entry into her house.
Her son also looked unsuccessfully for the guns and provided his mother with serial numbers for her report to police in order to keep anyone else from trying to register them in their names.
Wyandotte
Yard trashed
A resident of the 4000 block of 10th awoke last Saturday to find someone had vandalized her front yard.
A large amount of shredded paper and other debris was scattered on her front porch and lawn. A substance believed to be cake was smashed on the hood of her car, and fecal matter was in her mailbox.
One of the papers was a job application made out by a resident of the 4000 block of 18th Street.
Officers made contact with the woman and she and her grandmother both said she was home the entire night.
(Compiled by Daniel Heraty, Andrea Poteet and Tom Tigani.)