The following were taken from actual incident reports filed last week by the City of Charleston Police Department. These are not convictions and the names of businesses, complainants, and suspects have been left out to protect the innocent. All suspects are innocent until proven guilty … of course.
April 10
ALL OTHER LARCENY
A construction crew reported to police that someone had stolen an entire fireplace out of a Stonestown Drive home they had just installed it in two days prior. Whoever stole the $1,300 fireplace, also severed a gas line and left scratch marks across the floor as they dragged it out.
April 10
NARCOTICS VIOLATION
A man being investigated for possible domestic abuse at a West Ashley Motel blurted out, “there’s not need to test it, it’s Meth,” to police officers who found a bag hidden in a Nintendo 3DS. Police had already removed a knife from the man when they began searching his other belongings.
April 11
AGGRAVATED ASSAULT, FIREARM
A Magnolia Road man was FaceTiming his girlfriend as he sat in his car in his driveway when a group of men came around the corner and someone opened fire. The man ran and hid in his backyard and was not injured.
April 11
AGGRAVATED ASSAULT, FIREARM
A Carriage Lane resident said he heard shots fired from a car fleeing through his parking lot as it tried to fit between two parked cars, side-swiping one of them. The fleeing car left its headlight behind, which was quickly identified as belonging to a Crown Victoria.
April 11
SIMPLE ASSAULT
A woman told police that she had been attacked by the current girlfriend of her children’s father in the Ashley River Road apartment all three adults had been sharing. There was some disagreement about whether the current girlfriend had thrown a candlestick or a toy truck at the other woman before jumping on top of her as an argument over who owned what bed escalated.
April 12
MOTOR VEHICLE THEFT
A local valet company told police someone had taken their $100,000 supercoach 60-passenger bus from where it had broken down near the intersection of Savannah Highway and Old Charleston Road. The driveshaft had snapped, so it was suspected whoever took it had to have towed it.
April 12
WEAPONS LAW VIOLATION
Police traced the description of a car and driver suspected of firing a gun in the air during a traffic squabble to a West Ashley pizza delivery store. The complainant told police the delivery driver had been following too closely to his car in traffic and “laying on his horn” as he drove on the peninsula. The man followed the driver, who emerged from his car, and allegedly pointed a revolver in the air and fired a single shot. The man’s wife, an attorney, asked him why he followed the delivery driver in the first place.
April 12
SHOPLIFTING
Employees at a West Ashley grocery store tried to stop a woman from shoplifting multiple cans of Twisted Teas alcoholic beverages. The woman, described as being in her mid-60s, had visited the store several times over the past week and allegedly made off with several cans of the beverage by going to a part of the store that security cameras don’t cover, and secreting them in her coat. When a manager attempted to confront her as she walked out the door, the woman allegedly pushed a cart in his way and ran outside, jumping into a car with out-of-state plates.
April 12
ARSON
Police responded to a burning portable toilet on Playground Road. One witness came forward to say that two juveniles had pushed the toilet over and then ran away from it as it caught fire. A young child was soon questioned, and admitted to having brought a found lighter and some gas from home to the park.
