THE BLOTTER: Singing the cesspool blues

A shoplifting call at a location of The Home Depot turned into a bizarre manhunt that ended in a sewer system in Cumming, GA.

The whole thing started around 8 a.m. when a 24-year-old man allegedly tried to steal copper wire from a Home Depot. Employees tried to stop the man, but he ran outside and hid in the parking lot when police officers arrived. We aren’t sure where he hid in a parking lot.

Eventually, officers spotted the 24-year-old man getting into his car, and speeding off toward Ga. 400. “Due to traffic, officers called off the chase,” reports The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Apparently, chasing this unwise 24-year-old was complexly unnecessary. About 30 seconds after cops called off the chase, the suspect wrecked his car, hitting a Ga. 400 guardrail.

“We’re not really sure why (he crashed). I don’t know if he was impaired. I’m not sure what the deal was,” Cumming Police Chief David Marsh said.
The 24-year-old jumped over the guardrail and fled into a development. “Since it was still in the early stages of construction, the only part that had been completed was the sewer system,” reports the AJC.

As the manhunt continued, the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office got involved, and called the construction crew for a map of the development’s sewer system.
Cops stationed one person at every entry into the sewer system and waited for the 24-year-old to resurface. After 20 minutes, the suspect came out “kind of like whack-a-mole,” said the Cumming Police Chief.

The bizarre manhunt stunned the onsite construction crew. “They were all just interested. You know, kind of sitting around watching like this is not something that happens most days,” the Cumming Police Chief said. “There wasn’t a ton of people out there. But there were enough people to kind of gather everyone’s interest. I imagine they stopped working for a few minutes while that was going on.”

The 24-year-old is charged with shoplifting, fleeing or attempting to elude for a felony offense, and other drug offenses.

Bribery wins

A Friend of the Blotter reports: In the Savannah area, a Chatham County Police Officer responded to a residence at 5:05 a.m. The homeowner heard the sound of a car door closing in his garage and he went to investigate.

The homeowner found a strange man standing next to his car with the door wide open.He asked the suspect if he could help him, and the suspect replied, “I am trying to take your car.” Well, that’s one honest thief.

Thinking fast, the homeowner told the suspect he did not have the keys to the vehicle handy — and asked if he would be interested in taking a bus or other transportation and gave him a $100 bill. That’s the most innovative and generous response to an attempted car theft the Blotter has ever reported.

The suspect walked off while the homeowner called police, who apprehended the suspect on foot shortly afterwards.

Taking a bite out of crime

A female passenger on a Delta Airlines flight from Las Vegas to Atlanta is facing a whopping huge fine for her alleged unruly behavior — $77,272. The female passenger allegedly tried to “hug and kiss the passenger seated next to her; walked to the front of the aircraft to try to exit during flight; refused to return to her seat,” and for the grand finale, the disruptive female “bit another passenger multiple times.”

The flight crew had to physically restrain the woman to prevent further disruption on the flight to Atlanta.

The woman is facing a $77,272 fine from FAA — one of the agency’s largest fines ever for unruly behavior, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Burn, baby, burn

Three men are going to federal prison for burning five U.S Post Office trucks outside a post office on Oglethorpe Avenue in southwest Atlanta.

The three men pleaded guilty to arson and conspiracy, according to the U.S. Attorney General’s Office.

The specific motive for the arson/conspiracy is unclear. A lead prosecutor said evidence gathered by the FBI and other agencies suggests the men’s actions may have been intended as a political protest against the 2020 presidential election.

One of the three suspects made it super-easy for cops to find him. An assistant U.S. Attorney told WSBTV-Action News that during the arson, one suspect was wearing an ankle monitor after getting bond in the Fulton County Case on the arson of the Wendy’s fast-food restaurant near the Rayshard Brooks shooting.

“We could match up the GPS location information with all … locations to show that he was at all these incidents,” Hobson told the news station. —CL—
 

The Blotter Diva compiles reports from the Atlanta Police Department and local news reports — and puts them into her own words.