Allen Park
Breaking up by breaking up
A man who tore and wrote “cheating whore” on his girlfriend’s clothes started throwing objects at her when she woke him up, screaming her displeasure about the destruction of her wardrobe.
The woman, who called police officers with her cell phone from the apartment building parking lot in the 6300 block of Pelham the morning of Aug. 14, said he was inside the apartment with the couple’s children.
She said when she was getting ready to go to work, she discovered the destruction of her clothing, and woke him by throwing the damaged shirt at him while yelling. She said he threw a 4-foot floor fan at her, narrowing missing her. She said he then picked up a clock radio and threw it to the ground, shattering it, then “got in her face” and forced her to bend backwards over the kitchen sink through intimidation but no physical contact. She said he then slapped a cake and plate off the stove onto the floor, shattering the plate. She said she then grabbed her phone and left the apartment.
He said he knocked the cake off the stove and broke the plate, but denied throwing it, and said the other items in the apartment had been broken weeks earlier. He said he had already cleaned up the cake mess and was preparing to go to work.
Both said that none of their children witnessed the altercation.
The police officers noticed the fan leaning against the doorway where it had allegedly been thrown, the smashed clock radio, and the broken plate and cake in the garbage.
The couple have a lengthy history of domestic violence incidents.
The man was taken into custody for domestic violence, booked and held without bond. A personal protection order from the woman against the man had been initiated in the past but never activated; it was served after the Aug. 14 incident. He was charged with non-violent cruelty to a spouse.
Speeding, jealous drunken driver hits telephone pole, tries to flee from police
A 33-year-old Southgate man driving north on Pelham at 90 mph the evening of Aug. 18 became a guest of the Allen Park “bed and breakfast” – aka jail – after driving while drunk, trying to outrun police and fleeing the scene of a crash.
When a police officer patrolling south on Pelham activated his lights and attempted a traffic stop, the man attempted to make a sudden left turn onto Haskell Avenue in Taylor. However, he lost control of the vehicle and crashed into a telephone utility pole.
The man then fled north on foot through an alley behind a nearby store. The officers followed in their patrol car. The man then ran south, back to the scene of the crash, and surrendered to officers.
The passenger inside the man’s vehicle was medically cleared and released from the scene.
The driver said he had been at a bar in Southgate, and had gotten into an argument with his girlfriend. She left in another vehicle with a friend, and he decided to try to catch up with her to talk.
A preliminary breath test was administered, and the man had a blood-alcohol content of 0.16, two times the 0.08 limit for legally drunk in Michigan.
He was charged with obstructing police and resisting an officer, failing to report an accident, and operating under the influence of alcohol.
Dearborn
Man rummages through unlocked vehicle
A Dearborn resident reported his unlocked vehicle was rummaged through by an unknown man after the incident was caught on security video on Aug. 16.
The resident said the man approached the black Jeep parked in the driveway at a house in the 7000 block of Calhoun near Tireman.
The man was wearing a light-colored shirt and shorts when he rode up to the driveway of the house about 2:30 a.m. on a bike.
According to the resident, the man walked up to the unlocked front passenger side door and began searching through the vehicle.
It is unknown if the man stole anything from the vehicle, but police are warning residents to lock their vehicles and not to leave valuables inside.
Dearborn Heights
Resident’s wallet missing from vehicle
A victim of a wallet theft called police to a house in the 25600 block of New York Street after she discovered the wallet missing from her Honda Accord on Aug. 15.
Once on the scene, the woman said her vehicle was left unlocked when she parked it in the driveway about 12:30 a.m. That same day, the woman went back to her vehicle at 6:30 a.m. when she noticed the wallet missing.
The wallet contained $10 in cash, credit cards and indentification.
There is no suspect information.
Lincoln Park
Computer, Xbox, Cartier sunglasses stolen
A Dell laptop, valued at $1,100, an Xbox One S video game console, valued at $250, and a pair of Cartier sunglasses, valued at $1,500, were reported stolen the afternoon of Aug. 18 by a 24-year-old man living in the 800 block of Lincoln Avenue. The larceny occurred between 1:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m., when the man was not home. The point of entry appeared to be a bedroom window on the west side of the house. There was no surveillance video, and no witnesses.
Propane tanks stolen from outside Great Lakes Ace Hardware
A man in a blue pickup truck was recorded on surveillance video at 10:30 p.m. Aug. 16 stealing 11 propane tanks, valued at $600, from a locked enclosure in front of Great Lakes Ace Hardware, 3584 Fort St. The enclosure lock, valued at $100, was damaged. The man is seen on the video cutting the lock, and carrying tanks, two at a time, to his truck, which he moved out of camera range after initially driving it in front of the propane enclosure.
Melvindale
Fraudulent Comcast installation averted
A 53-year-old Taylor man who received a notice that Comcast cable equipment was being installed at a Melvindale apartment in the 17000 block of Raupp Aug. 20 met the installer at the address and stopped the installation. Police officers were then notified of the fraud, but no one responded to a door knock at the apartment. The man was advised to contact his credit card companies, banks and credit reporting agencies about the identity theft.
Garage burglarized while parent at work, children in house
A 31-year-old woman living in the 18000 block of Ruth reported the night of Aug. 17 that her garage was broken into and multiple items stolen between 3:30 and 11:30 p.m. while she was at work. She said her three children were in the house at the time, but did not hear anything unusual.
She said the garage side door was open when she returned home, and the main garage door, which faces the alley, was halfway open.
The items stolen included a portable radio, a cassette player, an MP3 player, a Walkman, an air compressor, cement saws, a toolbox with assorted tools, lawn care equipment, including a mowers, lawn trimmers, tools and tillers, and four black adult bicycles.
Police officers observed that the side garage door appeared to have been pried open. There were smudged prints, but no usable fingerprints, and numerous undefined footprints in the garage. There were no surveillance cameras in the area.
Riverview
Eclipse clipped
An overnight vehicle hit-and-run incident was reported Aug. 14 in the 19000 block of Coachwood, where a 2004 blue Mitsubishi Eclipse parked on the street was struck on the driver’s side front section of the car. Silver paint transfer was evident on the damaged vehicle. The vehicle owner said the car was parked at 6 p.m. Aug. 13 in front of his house. There were no suspects.
Vietnam Veteran license plate stolen
A Vietnam Veteran license plate was reported stolen the morning of Aug. 10 from the 14000 block of Williamsburg, from a Lincoln MKZ parked overnight in resident’s driveway. The owner thinks the license plate was still attached when the car was parked the day before. There were no suspects.
Southgate
Razor’s Edge glass door shattered
The front entry door glass at Razor’s Edge Barber Shop and Beauty Salon, 13293 Dix Toledo Road, was reported shattered the morning of Aug. 14 by an unknown object. The door, valued at $500, was last seen intact the day before.
Senior scammed by IRS phone fraud
A 64-year-old man reported that the afternoon of Aug. 14 he was scammed out of $8,000 by a caller claiming he owed back taxes to the Internal Revenue Service, and if he didn’t comply, his Social Security number would be “red flagged,” his bank accounts would be frozen and a warrant would be issued for his arrest that day.
The man withdrew $8,000 from his credit union, and went to Crystal Market, 18618 Eureka, where he transferred the money at a Bitcoin kiosk.
Trenton
Police officers rescue cat from house fire
Police rescued an elderly woman’s cat from a house fire the morning of Aug. 17 on Blaine Avenue. Heavy smoke and flames were coming from the direction of the kitchen. Two officers entered through a side door, found the cat, and took it to the woman, who, covered with soot, was waiting anxiously at a neighbor’s house. The woman was later taken to Trenton Beaumont Hospital for evaluation.
Tree branch versus Saturn
A large tree branch fell on a 2008 red Saturn the afternoon of Aug. 18 outside an apartment building on Riverside Drive. The car’s rear window was shatter and the roof was caved in. The owner was given a police report number for insurance purposes.
Wyandotte
Passed out in parking lot
A 53-year-old Southgate man was found passed out the night of Aug. 15 near a bush in the parking lot of CVS/pharmacy, 2025 Fort St., with three empty 25-ounce cans of Natty Daddy beer found on the ground next to him.
When a police officer woke the man, he slurred his words, smelled strongly of alcohol and was unable to stand. He said he was on his way to visit his girlfriend, who had recently overdosed, at Henry Ford Wyandotte Hospital.
A preliminary breath test was administered, and the man had a blood-alcohol content of 0.249, more than three times the 0.08 limit for legally drunk in Michigan. The man was searched, handcuffed and taken to the police station, where he was charged with public intoxication and held.
The man previously had lost his driver’s license due to multiple substance abuse convictions, and had a no bond warrant out of a local court.
Drunken driver with baby in car tries to use her mother’s name
A 41-year-old River Rouge woman with her 1-year-old son in the car was arrested the evening Aug. 18 for driving while drunk, with a suspended license, for child endangerment, and lying to a police officer when she tried to assume her 62-year-old mother’s identity.
The woman, who was driving west on Goddard, was driving halfway into the eastbound lane, causing a police officer to swerve to avoid her. Before the officer could initiate a traffic stop, the woman, who was driving west in the eastbound lane, nearly hit an eastbound vehicle that stopped to try to avoid her vehicle.
When the officer pulled the woman over and asked her why she was driving in the wrong lane, she said she was arguing on the phone with her husband, at which point she began to cry.
She identified the baby in the back seat, in a car seat, as her grandson. She gave her mother’s name and age, 62, as her own. When the officer said she didn’t look that old, she thanked him.
The officer saw a driver’s license in her wallet, and asked for the wallet. The woman said it was her daughter’s wallet, that they look alike, and continued to try to pass herself off as her mother, until she slipped and said she was taking her son to her mother’s house.
The woman, who smelled of intoxicants, insisted she had not been drinking, but admitted to taking some prescription Xanax earlier in the day.
She failed multiple field sobriety tests, and said to the officer, “I can’t do this. No one can. You do it.”
A preliminary breath test was administered, and the woman had a blood-alcohol content of 0.121, one-and-a-half times the 0.08 limit for legally drunk in Michigan.
She was arrested, handcuffed and taken into custody. She was told that when she is fingerprinted during booking, her true identity will be revealed, so she finally gave her true name.
The woman’s mother, who has court-ordered temporary custody of her grandson, went to the police station to pick him up.
The woman had a warrant for shoplifting, and her driver’s license was suspended. Her vehicle was impounded and towed.
(Compiled by Zeinab Najm and Sue Suchyta.)