This list of crimes was compiled from censored police reports and written by Lydia Sprague.
Used butts
At 8:19 a.m. on Aug. 15, police were dispatched to Warren Avenue North and Thomas Street after receiving a 911 call reporting a man was pepper-sprayed. Fire medics also responded to treat the victim.
The victim said he was walking in the alley behind the 200 block of Warren Avenue North when he saw a cigarette butt sitting on top of an electrical box, so he reached to pick it up. He then heard somebody yelling out from a window on the ground level of the building.
The suspect exited the building, confronted the victim and told him not to take the cigarette butts. The victim walked away.
He said he was in the 100 block of Thomas Street when the suspect ran up from behind him with one hand behind his back. Fearing that the suspect was armed with a weapon, the victim dropped his bags and backed up. The suspect yelled, “Stay away from my property,” and sprayed him in the face with pepper spray.
A witness told police he saw the victim dropping his bags and backing up with his hands to his sides, and then he saw the suspect spraying the victim with a large canister of pepper spray.
Police went to the building in the 200 block of Warren Avenue North. Based on the victim’s statement, they figured out which room the suspect was yelling out of. By giving the room and description of the suspect to the desk staff, police were able to obtain a name of the suspect. Shelter staff said the unit is assigned to the suspect and his girlfriend, and they are not allowed to have any guests.
Paper pusher
Employees of a business in the 4400 block of 2700 Avenue West called 911 when they got to work at 7 a.m. on Aug. 19 and saw it had been broken into.
The employees said the alarm was set at 6:50 p.m. on Aug. 16, when the last employee left.
When the first employee arrived at work the following Monday, there was a note from the cleaning crew stating that, when they entered on Aug. 18 at 12:40 p.m., the alarm was set and an office door had been broken. Filing cabinets had also been pried open in that office.
Nothing appeared to be missing, and it looked like the suspect was looking for something in particular, such as specific paperwork.
No prints were found.
Trojan horse
Police responded to a burglary at a business in the 2100 block of Queen Anne Avenue North on the morning of Aug. 16. There were no signs of forced entry, leading the manager to believe the burglar was hiding in an upstairs bathroom at closing.
The last employee left the previous evening at 8:45 p.m., and the doors had been locked. The cook arrived at 6:30 a.m., and the doors were still locked. The manager arrived around 7 a.m. and began opening the business when she found that the $400 cash in the register was missing and the extra keys to the business were also missing.
She also noticed that the refrigerator and a light for a display case were unplugged, which should not have been.
She went and checked the business a few doors down that is owned by the same person. Somebody had tried to pry and kick the back door in there but was unsuccessful.
The burglar also cut a camera that was not hooked up to anything.
Burgled bankcards
At 10:30 a.m. on Aug. 16, police were dispatched to a building in the 1800 block of Taylor Avenue North to investigate a burglary.
The victim said a burglar entered her apartment through an unlocked window between 3:30 p.m. the previous day and 10:20 a.m. that morning.
The burglar rummaged throughout the home and took a laptop computer.
The victim called her roommate, who is out of state, and she said that unauthorized transactions were made on her credit-card account.
The victim checked her roommate’s room and discovered that a laptop, credit card, driver license, passport and checkbook were missing.
Compromised key
Police responded to a building on Republican Street at 4:10 p.m. on Aug. 14 to investigate a burglary.
The victim told police he left his digital apartment key in the building’s community room at 8:42 a.m., just before leaving the building. He returned at 11:50 a.m. to discover that his living room had been ransacked.
Upon further investigation, the building’s computer system showed that the burglar used the victim’s access key to enter the victim’s apartment between 11:07 and 11:11 a.m. The key does not have the unit number on it, so whomever took the key and burglarized the victim’s apartment saw the victim leave it in the community room.
The building’s computer system monitors who enters the community room, and the property manager was able to show police the surveillance footage.
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