Officers were called to a local grocery store because a man strolled in, helped himself to a bottle of wine and strolled back out - without paying for it.

He didn’t make a clean get away, however. Police caught up to him just a few miles away. When questioned about where he’d been, he said he had been shopping and was just trying to get home to his roommate.

He denied being at the grocery store and gave officers permission to search his truck.

The reason why he was so willing to cooperate was that he’d dropped the bottle in the grocery store parking lot and knew officers would only find a wine cork or two.

The store manager called police while they were searching the truck and told them he found the bottle dropped in the parking lot after having a confrontation with a store employee who was trying to stop him from stealing.

He also informed the officer that the man in question was already on trespass notice from their grocery store.

To make matters worse for the wino, his license was suspended. Then he freely admits he’d been drinking wine earlier in the evening so officers asked him to perform some field sobriety tests.

Amazingly, he passed all of them.

However, he was arrested for Driving Under Suspension and asked if he wanted to talk to officers about the stolen bottle of wine.

He admitted that he stole it and said he did so to go back and drink with his girlfriend. He also added that he did it because he was not old enough to buy it.

Once police were able to talk to the store employee they found out the man was on trespass notice for the same crime and on this particular day they recognized him right away. He walked into the store, went straight to the wine aisle, picked out his poison and walked outside. The employee followed him and tried to stop him. When the thief pulled the wine bottle out of his waist ban, he dropped it and it shattered on the ground. The employee tried to stop the man from leaving but he jumped in his truck and started it up. Then the employee reaches in and snatched the keys out of the ignition.

But wouldn’t you know, the truck was still running and the man was able to drive off, leaving the employee holding the keys.

•••

Raising a stink

A property owner in Rivertowne has been dealing with some NIMBY’s (Not In My Back Yard) lately.

When enough was enough, he called police.

Turns out the man is trying to sell his lot but the neighbors on the street want the lot to remain vacant.

 So in an effort to impede the sale of the property they’ve let their dogs do their business all over his lot. Some have even gone to the trouble of cleaning up their dogs poop in little bags then tossing the bags all over the lot. When police arrived they found bags of poop every where and mounds of feces all over the lot.

The man told police that he doesn't want anyone on his property and would place No Trespassing signs along the property. He requested extra patrols by police when possible.

•••

Not so funny

Police were called to property a local church owned because a shrine on the property, commemorating future expansion of the church, had been vandalized.

Someone broke a wooden box which contained a bible and devotional book and tore up the pages. Then this punk tried to burn the the books and threw a plastic chair in a nearby hole.

A very similar incident happened about six months prior but church officials and police had no leads or suspects.

•••

Responsible decisions

A woman was shopping at a local center when she walked by a car and saw a little girl strapped in her seat, crying hysterically. There was no adult in the car and she was at a loss at what to do. She called police and stood by the car for at least five minutes before a woman came out of a nearby store and scooped up the crying child.

When police got there the woman who was in charge of the children in the car was claiming the crying child. She tried to explain to officers that she had been in the store less than five minutes and was at the door of the business the entire time.

(Because usually when women go shopping they don’t look around, rather they stand at the front door).

However that claim was disputed by the woman who stood at the car waiting on someone to come back.

The officer found out that the children in the car were not even her kids. He proceeded to lecture the 52-year-old on leaving children unattended in cars - especially when the children are not hers.

She is being entrusted as a caretaker in the absence of the parents.

The officer told the woman he would be calling the parents of the kids and informing them about what happened. She countered that she would be calling them too.

Everyone went on their way and the officer stopped in the store to talk with employees. The officer found out that this woman, who is a regular customer, was only in the store for five minutes but was not standing at the front door watching the kids.

•••

When it’s over, it’s over

Breaking up is hard to do.  Especially when the girlfriend is a psycho.

And for this next ex, pyscho might be an understatement.

The male involved in the relationship went to the police station because the woman would not stop calling him and his wife.

He told officers that he and his wife separated for a short time, during which he dated this girl from Hanahan.

The relationship ended and he got back together with his wife.

But Ms. Hanahan wasn’t too keen on this turn of events.

In an effort to let her boyfriend know this, she refused to leave him alone.

She burned up his phone with endless phone calls and refused to return a gun he loaned her for protection.

At one point she even left him a note on his car with a bullet attached to it.

The relationship with Ms. Hanahan ended in 2006 so he didn’t know her address. He was able to tell police where she worked in Mount Pleasant.

Police said they would help him get his gun back and tell the woman to quit calling him and his wife.

•••

Knock knock

Imagine a local woman’s surprise when she awoke to find two police officers standing in her bedroom.

One of the officers went above and beyond the call of duty while he was patrolling one night.

He saw a woman’s garage door open, with the lights on in the upstairs windows. He walked up to the house to check on things and found the door unlocked.

He went around to the front and rang the bell several times but no one answered. Then he had dispatch call the house to see if anyone was home. When no on answered the phone he checked the mailbox and found the mail still inside and a UPS package on the front porch.

He then went next door to the neighbors to see if they knew anything.

They said to their knowledge the resident was not out of town.

Back up officers arrived and it was determined that they needed to go inside the house to make sure everything was okay. They opened the door and announced their presence, but got no response.

They went from room to room until they finally came upon the resident asleep in her bed. She woke up and officers explained to the surprised woman why they were inside her home.

They explained that she should lock her doors and shut her garage.

She was very appreciative of the officers looking out for her.

•••

Short and sweet

A woman married just 30 days was being kicked out of the house because she was caught having an affair and called police. She asked police to come because her husband was about to throw her things into the front yard.

The husband told police the marriage was over and on top of being angry he was drunk. He was very antagonistic and officers encouraged him to go sleep at a friends house for the night.

There wasn’t much officers could do but ask them to calm down. They were warned about domestic violence laws and mandatory repercussions if violated.

•••

Who woulda’ thought

An elderly woman was found disoriented and confused in a church parking lot but was able to give officers her name and her daughters name.

Dispatchers  located a phone number for the daughter and called her to inform her mother was with them. She explained that her mother had Alzheimer’s.

But in the meantime dispatch came back and said this woman might have Alzheimer’s but she was wanted out of Kershaw County for fraudulent checks.

She was taken to the station so officers could gather information on the pending arrest but there was insufficient information to hold the woman any longer.

She was a given a ride home and her information was passed on to Kershaw County.

(The Police Blotter is intended to be a humorous column written from police reports obtained from the Mount Pleasant Police Department. Many of the stories come from the initial incident reports and, occasionally, supplemental reports. Generally, cases have not been adjudicated at the time of publication. See more columns at www.moultrienews.com.)

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