Allen Park
Pool accessories pilfered
Pool parts were stolen Monday from a residence in the 15200 block of Demean.
A new pool filter and motor that had been next to the former site of a pool that recently was removed were discovered missing around 3 p.m. that day.
The bank is foreclosing on the house and the owner said she left the items there after the pool was removed, but did not know when they had been taken.
Gun missing after visit
A .45-caliber handgun was discovered missing Monday from a house in the 15500 block of Keppen.
The homeowner said that the night before, his daughter had invited over two friends, a 19-year-old Melvindale man and a another man known only as “CJ.” After staying for a few hours, they asked the homeowner for a ride back to Taylor.
As the two guests got into his car, the homeowner said the 19-year-old walked over to another car owned by the family, grabbed a package from inside and hid it under his shirt. When the homeowner asked what he was doing, the Melvindale man told him he was retrieving his marijuana.
The Melvindale man, who the family has known for many years, kept the package concealed in his shirt the entire ride home. The homeowner and his daughter said they had met “CJ” for the first time that night.
When the homeowner returned, his loaded gun was missing from its usual spot.
Dearborn
Break-in nets copper piping
Approximately 70 feet of copper piping and a central air-conditioning unit were taken between 1 p.m. April 28 and 9:30 a.m. April 29 from a house in the 24000 block of Ward.
Basement tiles also were removed and broken to get to the pipe.
The suspects got in through French doors on the southeast end of the house. There were no signs of forced entry; all other windows and doors were locked.
The screen was lifted from a southwest window and footprints were found outside the doors.
The house recently had been sold.
Break-in at vacant house
An open garage door to a vacant house in the 200 block of North Silvery Lane at 6:20 p.m. April 29 raised the suspicions of a neighbor.
He told police that about 1 a.m. the same day, he also saw a newer model Ford Taurus in the driveway. When he went out to see what was going on, the car fled at a high rate of speed.
The owner of the house, who lives in Texas, told police he evicted a 33-year-old Detroit woman, and that she may have broken in to get some of her belongings.
A background check on the woman revealed a warrant for her arrest out of Detroit for embezzlement.
Police found the garage door open, an outside window broken and the back door open.
Dearborn Heights
Suspect arrested after drugstore holdup
A 28-year-old Detroit man stole three bottles of painkillers at gunpoint at 2:30 p.m. April 29 from Dearborn Heights Pharmacy, 25524 Ford Road.
The pharmacist said the man came into the store with plastic bags over his hands and wearing a bandana.
He demanded the pills, pulling out a black handgun and telling the pharmacist he didn’t want to hurt her.
He then fled the store and later was caught by police attempting to hide behind bushes at a house in the 5000 block of Evangeline.
Trespasser has previous warrants
A 40-year-old Dearborn Heights man was arrested for trespassing after being found at 7 p.m. Tuesday lying in an empty storage cage at Cambridge Apartments, 7026 Inkster.
The maintenance supervisor reported noise coming from the basement. He then found the man and called police.
A background check revealed the man had two previous arrest warrants out of Detroit.
Money, electronics taken in home invasion
A black laptop computer, $270 cash and a video game system with assorted games were taken Tuesday from a house in the 8000 block of North Silvery Lane.
The owner, a 44-year-old Heights resident, returned home about 6:45 p.m. that day and found the screen to the back bedroom window cut and ripped out and the window off the rack.
She told police that an 18-year-old acquaintance of her son may have been involved.
Police contacted the man, who denied any involvement.
Lincoln Park
Pair busted for pot in vacant house
A man and a woman were spotted just before 8 p.m. last Sunday as they walked up the driveway of a house in the 1100 block of Cleveland while pushing a shopping cart.
A witness who had been taking care of the grounds of the vacant house said shortly afterward she heard two loud noises. She then walked to the corner and saw the woman opening the side door to let the man inside.
Police entered and found the pair, a 35-year-old resident woman and a 43-year-old resident man, in the basement. She told them they had moved out of the house four months ago and were collecting items from it.
Officers smelled burnt marijuana and the woman said she had been smoking some and had part of marijuana cigarette in her pocket.
Police arrested her for marijuana possession and the man for loitering where narcotics are kept, sold or used.
Police still are trying to contact the property’s owners.
Man arrested after downspouts removed
A 24-year-old resident was arrested for larceny early Monday in the 1400 block of Paris.
A witness sitting on his porch just after midnight saw a thin white man in his early 20s wearing a black hooded sweatshirt walk around a house several times before stopping on the south side next to one of the downspouts. He said the man then took some tools out of his pocket to try to remove the spout, but was unable to do so and walked to the rear of the building.
Police checked the area and found two downspouts about 6 feet long and two drain spouts about 2 feet long lying behind an enclosed trash receptacle on the building’s northwest side. Officers then spotted a man matching the witness’s description walking north on Lafayette just north of Paris.
The man tried to tell police he lived on Paris, but couldn’t give an address, a destination or say where he was coming from. He then told police he didn’t know why he had tools in his pockets; officers then arrested him.
Southgate
A/C units disappear
Air-conditioning units were taken last week from two residences.
A resident of a condominium in the 16200 block of Dunston said her unit, which covered with a blue tarp, was taken from the front of the building between 9 a.m. May 2 and May 3.
A unit was discovered missing May 3 from the rear of a house in the 14500 block of Pearl.
Both units are valued at $1,500.
Garden globe gone
A light-emitting diode globe was taken sometime before April 30 from a house in the 15400 block of McCann.
A similar theft also took place in recent weeks, the owner said. Both items are valued at $25.
Taylor
Sprinkler system pipes pulled
A resident in the 9100 block of Slavens woke up April 29 to find a garden hose reel in the middle of his driveway, and when he went to move it back into place he discovered that the copper pipes for his sprinkler system had been stolen.
Implements cleared out of barn
Tire tracks leading to a barn in the 25200 block of Goddard Road led the owner to discover last week that some 12 railroad ties and some farm equipment were missing.
The owner said he believes the thefts occurred during winter sometime before the ground thawed. Along with the railroad ties, about $100 work of angle steel was taken, as were two 8-foot plowing devices.
Total value of all missing items is about $800.
Trenton
Apartment safe emptied
An apartment in the 1500 block of Marie apparently was burglarized April 30.
The resident left about 9:45 a.m. to run some errands and left her son sleeping in a bedroom. She returned at 10:20 a.m. to find that someone had entered through another bedroom window.
In the process a television was tipped over and drawers of a dresser and a night stand and stole her cell phone and two rings, one a high school class ring and the other a wedding/engagement ring.
An electronic face had been pried off a small safe that belonged to the resident’s daughter, and its inside door had been entered using a key and $1,250 cash had been removed.
The daughter’s purse was inside the apartment as well and had been dumped out, but none of the contents appeared to be missing.
Intoxicated woman nods out in restaurant
Police were called just after 4:30 p.m. April 30 to McDonald’s, 3355 West Road, on word that a woman appeared unable to care for a young child.
Witnesses said she was falling asleep while standing in line and ordering food and later was in the play area with a small boy and appeared to be nodding off and acting strange. Officers approached her and detected a slight odor of intoxicants and saw that she had cupcake frosting all over her face.
The woman admitted to drinking alcoholic beverages and taking painkillers, and while talking to police could not focus and began talking about math problems and equations. She and her son were taken to Oakwood Southshore Medical Center to be examined, and her minivan was secured in the restaurant parking lot.
Riverview
Mail scam thwarted
A resident of the 14100 block of Thornwood turned in evidence of a potential mail-order fraud to police April 29 before she could fall victim to it.
The woman and her husband received several calls and emails from someone who said they lived in Ukraine and expressed interest in Internet ads for a vacation rental the couple own in Madeira Beach, Fla. The rental was advertised for $950 per week.
Later, they received five European travelers checks in $500 denominations with a note asking them to send back the difference in U.S. dollars to an address in Houston. The envelope was postmarked from Ukraine.
The resident was suspicious of the request and conferred with the financial institution that issued the checks, who confirmed they were counterfeit.
She then turned them over to the police.
Wyandotte
Rocks wreak havoc on car
Two boys who were throwing rocks at each other on an overpass Tuesday hit a car traveling below the structure on Eureka Road.
The rock damaged a 2004 Buick driven by a 41-year-old Huron Township woman, causing two dents to its roof.
One of the two boys fingered his friend, a 16-year-old resident of the 900 block of Elm, for throwing the “golf ball-sized” rock in question.
The boy later admitted to causing the damage.
(Compiled by Daniel Heraty, Andrea Poteet and Tom Tigani.)