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 25
GAMBLING EQUIPMENT VIOLATION
Police discovered a room full of illegal gambling machines at a Wappoo Road business while investigating an armed robbery. A neighbor told police that a woman from the business told them that an unidentified woman had just kicked in the door to the business with a gun in hand and told everyone to get on the ground and then robbed them. The neighbor then fled before police arrived. Once on the scene, officers made sure the business was clear, and then discovered “multiple” illegal gambling machines. The owner of the building was not able to respond to police, either.
April 25
SHOPLIFTING
Officers arrested a man as he tried to shoplift four men’s suits valued collectively at over $2,000 at a Sam Rittenberg Boulevard department store. After the man was spotted pulling the suits off the rack and stuffing them into a black garbage bag, an off-duty officer tailed the man to the fragrance counter, where he confronted and arrested the man without further incident.
April 26
DRUG, NARCOTICS VIOLATION
Police arrested a man in the bathroom of a Savannah Highway store for having apparently spray-painted the room with orange paint available on the floor of the store. Employees had earlier followed the man to the bathroom, and heard what sounded like spray-paint being used. The man soon emerged and employees noticed fresh spray-paint on the door. The man returned to the bathroom, at which point the employees called police. Once on the scene, an officer reported going to the bathroom and hearing the spray-paint. After knocking on the door, the man emerged again, and the officer noted more fresh orange paint on the walls, and arrested the man.
April 25
Shoplifting
An employee at a Sam Rittenberg Boulevard store told police two women and one man came into the store and placed $957 in perfume and shirts into shopping bags and left without paying for them. A similar incident took place the next day, when a customer told an employee they had seen another shopper place close to 20 items valued at $1,000 into a bag and then exit the premises.
April 26
SHOPLIFTING
An employee at a Sam Rittenberg Boulevard hobby shop told police that a regular customer had apparently stolen a $55 “Warhammer Putrid Black Kings” action figure. The employee said they saw the customer take the box from the shelf with them as they went into a back room, where the employee later found the empty box in the trashcan.
April 27
CRIMINAL DOMESTIC VIOLENCE, SIMPLE ASSAULT
An officer responding to a report of an altercation between two cars in the roadway, stopped one of the cars near the intersection of Orleans and Savage roads. The man driving the second car told the officer that the driver of the other car had exited his vehicle when they were stopped in traffic and punched him in the face repeatedly. The man said the other driver was the ex-boyfriend of the passenger in his car, and that he’d earlier picked up the woman at her apartment after she called to say her ex-boyfriend was there and that she was worried for her safety due to his alleged violent history. The woman said that she and her ex-boyfriend broke up 10 years ago, but have three children together. A witness told police that they’d seen the driver of the second car repeatedly get out of his car at successive stoplight to assault the driver of the other car and woman. The ex-boyfriend admitted to striking the other man, but contended that the driver of the other car had kidnapped the mother of his three children and was holding her at gunpoint against her will.
