Mug Shots

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 18
Bomb threat
A Sam Rittenberg Boulevard service station employee told police that a man with a “heavy Arabic accent” had repeatedly called, threatening to blow up the store with a bomb. When the man called the first time and began counting down from 10, the employee felt it was a prank and he told the caller to “call someone from Pakistan” before hanging up the phone. After the man called back, asking what kind of business it was, the employee hung up again, this time when he counted down to “9,” and called police.
April 18
Vandalism
A Magnolia Road convenience store worker was closing up shop, when he heard several gunshots outside his business. He went outside, but saw no one. Police arrived and found four bullet holes in his front doors, but no casings.
April 18
Theft from a motor vehicle
The manager of a Magwood Drive fast-food restaurant parked his truck at work overnight because of engine trouble, and found it the next morning with the wheel removed from the rear driver’s side of the car. The wheel was resting on the ground next to his vehicle, but a window knocked out, and about $500 in personal items was missing from inside the vehicle. When the manager checked the security tape, he saw two men jump out from a SUV parked nearby that was missing a front wheel, jump out of their vehicle and knock out the window.
April 19
General information
Residents and witnesses near the corner of Robinhood and Nottingham roads reported two men on bicycles approach a car, and begin shooting at the car before fleeing. Police were able to find four, .45-caliber casings on the ground
April 20
Drug violation
School administrators discovered a loaded .32-caliber pistol in the car of student, who said he’d been shot at the night before, and needed “protection.” Earlier, two different students caught in a “tardy sweep” smelled of burnt marijuana, and school administrators used surveillance video to track the students to the other student’s car, which had a strong smell of marijuana coming through its sunroof, and was parked in a visitors spot.
April 20
Using a vehicle without consent
A Rock Hill man reported that his ex-girlfriend had been driving a relatively new car that he’d purchased without his permission since March 29. The man had bought the car as for his teenaged son, who lives in West Ashley. The son didn’t want the car, so the man let his ex-wife see if she wanted to buy the vehicle; she did not. So the man arranged it with his ex-girlfriend to drive the car to his house in Rock Hill, but she hasn’t been heard from since she took possession of the car.
April 21
Shoplifting
An Ashley Crossing Drive store employee followed a shopper as she dragged two 55-inch televisions to the back of the store, and loaded them into a SUV. When the employee grabbed the two televisions out of the SUV as it began to drive off, the driver pulled out a “dark object,” which may have been a gun, and asked, “What now? What now?” The employee backed away from the televisions, which the shopper then re-loaded into her vehicle and drove away.
April 21
Theft from a building
Two vacationing couples staying at an Ashley Pointe Drive hotel reported the two Seiko watches missing, as well as over $300 in cash while they were out eating dinner. The next day at lunch, one of the couples noticed several credit cards were also missing, and called their bank, which reported close to $1,500 in purchases having already been made at local stores.