The following were taken from actual incident reports filed last month 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.
August 20 | WIRE FRAUD
Police met with a man at a West Ashley business who said someone had illegally accessed his savings account and had transferred close to $37,000 in three incidents without his permission.
August 20 | LARCENY BY FALSE PRETENSES
A local bowling alley told police that a man with a full arm of tattoos that wound up the side of his neck skipped out on his $53 bar tab after going bowling. The man left behind his tennis shoes and cellphone.
August 21 | MOTOR VEHICLE THEFT
A McKee Court man told police that his wife heard his truck rev while he was in the house. The man had been preparing for an out of state trip and left the car running and unlocked. He initially thought his dog had accidently depressed the gas pedal, but when he opened the truck’s door, he saw a man sitting there. The man then threw the truck into gear and sped out of the driveway. The owner jumped onto the runner along the side of the truck, but was thrown off, forcing him to land on his back. As the truck continued to speed away, it ran over the man’s foot. Police noted that the man’s shoe and his shirt were still in the street. A neighbor began checking to see how much of the incident was captured by her security cameras on the outside of her house. The man said there were four guns in the backseat of the truck, as well as a supply of ammunition. Thanks to the “find my phone” app, he was able to show police where his truck was, and it was soon found at the corner of Juniper and Greech streets. The truck was recovered, as was all of the man’s belongings.
August 21 | CRIMINAL DOMESTIC VIOLENCE, AGGRAVATED ASSAULT
A woman told police that she had been arguing with two oommates at a Hazelwood Drive apartment about the number of visitors coming to the unit, when one of the two roommates shut the door to the room, and she then heard a loud bang and the woman call out for her. When the woman entered the room, she saw the other woman lying on the ground, with blood coming from cuts to her face. The male roommate wasn’t coherent and couldn’t explain what had happened. When officers asked the man what had happened, the man began to pace and told officers they needed to send for backup. The man was arrested and placed into the back of the police car. The woman had suffered a subdural brain bleed, bruising and swelling to her left eye and cheek, and was hospitalized. Officers noticed a damaged oscillating fan in the room that appeared to have blood and hair on it.
August 21 | FORGERY, COUNTERFEIT
A manager at a Savanah Highway car dealership told police that he had discovered that someone had written more than $12,000 in fraudulent checks to themselves from the dealership’s accounts. The deposits seemed to have taken place earlier this summer in amounts ranging from $24 to $7,000.
August 21 | AGGRAVATED ASSAULT, FIREARM
Officers responded to a shooting report on 5th Avenue in the Maryville neighborhood. When the officer arrived, he found an older man with multiple gunshot wounds to his extremities. The man was lying on the side of the road, wearing a tank-top and shorts, and was surrounded by a small crowd of people. The officer applied a tourniquet to the man’s right leg, and asked who had shot him. One witness said there had been an altercation at a nearby basketball court. Police soon found an abandoned car at a nearby cemetery that had fresh blood on the steering wheel, door handle, emergency handle, and shift knob. Additionally, there was a smear pattern of blood inside the car. A police dog was utilized in an attempt to track the blood. The driver of the car soon appeared and claimed to have been visiting a grave in the cemetery, and had no idea whose blood it was all over her car.
August, 22 | SIMPLE ASSAULT
Police arrived at a Palmetto Park Drive residence to investigate someone having had dog feces thrown at them. A man told police that while he was walking his dog down the street, another man pulled up in a car and claimed that he had scratched the other man’s car. The man denied it, but the driver began to back into him and his dog, and when the car stopped, the driver got out, wrestled his bag of feces from his hand and threw it at him, hitting him in the side of his head and body with his own dog’s poop. The other man then got back in the car and drove away. Officers observed brown dog feces on the man’s shirt, but the man said he had already washed the feces before they arrived.
August 22 | ASSISTING OTHER AGENCIES
Officers arrived at a Woodland Shores Road residence to a woman standing in the driveway. When they arrived, the woman extended her arms, stating, “Arrest me.”
August 22 | VANDALISM
A Hazelwood Drive woman told police that she and her boyfriend were in their apartment when the mother of her boyfriend’s children arrived unannounced and began beating on the door with her fists and kicking it. After the mother had kicked in the front door, she allegedly began yelling obscenities at the couple, leaving before the police arrived. Police noticed the door’s deadbolt had been kicked out.
