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.
November 16 | TRESPASS
Police investigated a possible incident of a man beating a woman at a Savannah Highway motel. Police had received notes saying, “Female saying he can beat her,” and “Male saying he beat her so bad,” and, “Sounds like male beating her now.” The woman told police that the man had only punched the wall of their room and then left to go to a nearby bar. Police spoke with the “visibly intoxicated” man at the bar, telling him to stay off motel property. The man repeatedly returned to the motel, and was arrested.
November 17 | GENERAL INFORMATION
Police discovered two small children, ages 5 and 2, in the hallway of a Savannah Highway hotel locked out of the room their father had left them in alone earlier that evening when he left for work in Mt. Pleasant. Police found a “large amount of old food on the floor,” as well as the smell of urine close to the bed. The older of the two children told officers they had eaten some waffles and boiled eggs earlier. The children were placed into protective custody, and when the father arrived at close to 2 a.m. The father told [police that he had left children on their own earlier that afternoon so he wouldn’t be late to work, and expected his cousin to come and watch them, but was unable to provide any information as to the identity of the cousin.
November 17 | MISSING PERSON
The guardian of two children told police that they had not been returned to her by their biological mother at the appointed time, and that the mother was not responding to phone calls from her. The woman had travelled to Charleston from Latta so the children could spend some time with their mother. Five hours later, the trio had not returned, and seven and a half hours after they left, there was still no contact. The guardian said she didn’t believe the children were in immediate danger, and that should be returned to her as the mother is not “fit to care for them” due to her alcohol abuse. Both children have been diagnosed with a disorder associated with alcohol abuse.
November 18 | SHOPLIFTING
Police arrived at a Sam Rittenberg Boulevard department store’s loss prevention office where two men had been detained for allegedly having attempted to steal nine Polo brand fleece jackets and five pairs of pants. The total value was close to $1,000. The pair had earlier moved a stack of clothes to a spot beyond the security cameras’ range, and then later placed them in a garment bag. One of the two had gone into a dressing room and removed the security tag from a jacket, irreparably damaging the jacket. When the two tried to take the elevator, loss prevention personnel were waiting for them as they exited.
November 18 | DUI
A man told police that he’d been trapped for three green lights in a row behind a stopped car at the intersection of Magwood Drive and Glenn McConnell Parkway. After cars pulled around the stopped car, the man exited his vehicle and approached the other car where he found the driver “slumped over” the wheel. When the man knocked on the window, the driver opened his eyes and took his foot of the brake, causing his car to roll into the back of another car. When officers arrived, the driver smelled of alcohol, was unsteady on his feet. and was slurring his words. During a search of the car, officers discovered a 750-ml bottle of vodka with 2 mil left in it, and a 12-pack of beer with 5 missing cans. The driver was too inebriated and aggressive to take part in diagnostic tests.
November 20 | BURGLARY, BREAKING AND ENTERING
A Whaley Way woman told police that when she returned home that day, she found her back door open and two of her television sets on the ground outside the back of the house. It appears that whoever broke into her residence did so through a broken window. A neighbor told police that she had witnessed the woman’s recent ex-boyfriend exiting the rear of the house with the two 42-inch sets.
