The Shelby County Sheriff’s Office handled the following incidents in Lakeland during the latter half of October. For earlier October incidents, see last week’s issue of The Bartlett Express.
Editor’s note: All suspects are presumed to be innocent until proven guilty in a court of law, and values are estimated for stolen/damaged items. These are brief summaries of detailed SCSO reports.
Oct. 17
Fletcher Trace Parkway (misdemeanor shoplifting)
A witness reported seeing a man steal six cell phones from Walgreens on Oct. 17, put them in his T-shirt and leave in a white Jeep pickup. She gave the responding officer the suspect’s license plate number.
Items stolen included three Samsung Galaxy Express phones ($79.99 each), one Galaxy J1 phone ($49.99) and two Optimus Zone 3 phones ($24.99 each), totaling $339.94. The store had surveillance video of the incident, which happened between 12:50 p.m. and 1:35 p.m.
U.S. 64 (theft from building/access device)
A customer at L.A. Fitness was the victim of a locker room crime at LA Fitness (9020 U.S. 64) on Oct. 17. He said he put his credit card and cash in a locker room around 3:30 p.m. and noticed they were missing when he returned in about an hour. A representative of his credit card company said one card had already been used at Target (7989 U.S. 64).
Oct. 18
Mitchwood Oak Drive (theft from motor vehicle)
A man who left his truck unlocked overnight is now one gun lighter, he reported on Oct. 18. He reported the theft of his loaded black Glock G19 9mm semi-automatic handgun, along with two loaded Glock 9mm magazines and three loaded Glock .380 caliber magazines from his white 2015 Ford F150.
His security camera showed a thin white male about 5 feet 10 inches tall who walked from the vehicle and then walked north on Mitchwood Oak toward Mackwood. The suspect wore white shorts and was shirtless and shoeless.
A deputy pulled two sets of prints from the driver’s side door and took photos at the scene. A dispatcher entered the handgun’s serial number into the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) database.
Beowolf Glade Cove (simple assault/domestic violence)
A father reported his angry son had vandalized his Mercury Marquis shortly after 3:30 p.m. Oct. 18. The son said he was mad his father wouldn’t let him switch out the battery to his truck and admitted he vandalized the car and struck his father with a shoe box.
When he resisted arrest, the officer sprayed him with a chemical agent, and an ambulance arrived to provide medical attention. The defendant was taken to Regional One and then to Juvenile Court.
The damage to the car was less than $500.
Dropseed Circle (identity theft)/strong>
A woman heard from her bank on Oct. 11 that someone had withdrawn $2,500 from her account at Bank of America. She reported on Oct. 18 that this was unauthorized. She had no suspect information and said she hasn’t had any personal identity documents or debit cards stolen.
Oct. 21
U.S. 64 (business robbery)
A man who entered AT&T (8950 U.S. 64) around 9:30 a.m. Oct. 21 went back to his car when told he needed his ID to get a phone. He returned with pliers and cut the cords to the phones mounted on the wall, telling the employee, “I needs these two phones off the wall. I’m not trying to harm you.”
She fled the store with her belongings and called 911. He walked out and left in a silver car, possibly a Hyundai Sonata or an Elantra, and traveled west on U.S. 64. Video surveillance from Dryve Cleaners shows the suspect’s vehicle entering and leaving the parking lot.
She said he took a Samsung phone ($695), two iPhones ($750 and $770), and two iPads ($730 and $1,080), totaling $4,025. He wore a white T-shirt with blue stripes, blue jeans, black shoes and a black-and-gray hat. He also had plastic covering his hands.
Oct. 22
Interstate 40/Canada Road (theft from vehicle)
A woman who left her 2007 white VW Jetta unlocked while she walked her dog around the park reported a purse theft on Oct. 22. The item stolen was a brown Coach bag with a pink strap left on the front seat, and it contained $200 cash, two checks worth $75, a checkbook, her FedEx employee ID, her driver’s license, a Regions Bank debit card, a Citibank credit card and toiletries.
Iron Bridge Cove (aggravated assault/domestic violence)
A woman was in her home around 8:40 p.m. with the windows open when she heard a disturbance across the street. She stepped onto her front porch and heard a neighbor and her son arguing in their garage. She saw the son holding what appeared to be a golf club but couldn’t see the mother, and then the son turned and struck the freezer in the garage before the garage door closed, she said. After a short while, the door raised again and closed immediately.
The victim across the street told officers that her adult son, who lives with her, argued because he wanted her debit card to buy something at Taco Bell. She told him there was no money in the account but he took it anyway and left. He returned shortly and was mad because there was no money in the account. She said they were arguing when he grabbed his hockey stick, struck the freezer and then struck her on the left side of the head. She said she fell to the ground and lost consciousness, and when she came to, he was leaning over to help her to her feet.
She had about a one-inch laceration to the head behind her left ear.
He said he had drunk a few alcoholic beverages during the night and didn’t want to provide his side of the story. He was arrested and taken to the Shelby County Jail.
A medical squad arrived and gave the woman medical attention, and she said she would go to the hospital for a follow-up.
Oct. 23
Maple Walk Drive (simple assault/domestic violence)
A woman reported Oct. 23 that her father came to her home uninvited, cursed, yelled and started a fight with everyone because he wasn’t invited to her niece’s birthday party. The incident began about 5:15 p.m.
One male victim said the suspect told him, “I’m going to knock your f______ head off” and pushed him several times in the chest. Another male victim said the suspect pushed him several times and said, “I’m going to kill you.” A female victim said the suspect told her, “I’m going to kill you first then I’m going to kill everyone else one by one.”
The responding officer didn’t observe any marks, bruises or cuts on the involved parties.
Musket Drive (residential burglary)
A woman who’s been staying at her fiancé’s home since Sept. 5 returned to her home on Musket Drive on Oct. 23 and learned that she may have had an intruder. The utilities are still connected there and most of her personal belongings are in the home. She said someone had replaced her pool cue with a less valuable one, and someone had ordered pay-per-view movies ($19.49). Her utility bill was $109 despite the fact that she wasn’t home, she said.
She named a man who is a former resident at the home as a possible suspect and said he might have made extra keys and stayed there while she was away.
Oct. 25
U.S. 64 (theft and recovery of a passenger vehicle)
A man who left his car running and unlocked was the victim of theft on Oct. 25 He said he arrived at Macon Road Baptist Church around 7:55 a.m. to drop his children off for school. He left his 2014 white Hyundai Sonata on the east side of the school, and it was gone when he returned. A dispatcher put the vehicle’s information into the NCIC.
A witness said she saw a black male standing by the school and described him as about 5 feet 7 inches tall, between 40 and 50 years old, with a receding hairline and wearing pants and a jacket. The car owner said he didn’t see him when he arrived, but other teachers said the subject had moved to the rear of the school before he arrived.
A deputy saw the vehicle westbound on I-40 just before 9 a.m., turned on his lights and pursued it southbound on Whitten when the drive refused to stop. Another deputy joined the pursuit around Macon and Raleigh Lagrange, and the vehicle turned east on Dexter. The pursuit was cancelled around Dexter and Beringer around 9:01 a.m. The deputy who spotted the vehicle described the suspect as a bald black male about 30-40 years old.
A sergeant patrolling the area found the car unoccupied and parked unlocked on the 1200 block of Bridgewater Road around 9:21 a.m. Deputies were able to pull latent prints from the driver’s door. Items stolen included the victim’s Lenova laptop ($2,000), Ping golf club set in a black Ping bag ($3,200), a black gym bag containing an iPod ($100), black-and-white Nike Air Max shoes ($100), gray Nike shoes ($80), black Nike shorts ($30), and a gray Nike shirt ($30). The victim’s keys to the vehicle, house, workplace and gym were also missing. A dispatcher entered the laptop’s information into NCIC.
The church has security cameras but was unable to access them at the time of the report.
Champions Drive (simple assault)
A resident said a black male stranger attacked him as he was leaving his residence, headed to the laundry room at the Somerset Apartments around 2:30 p.m. Oct. 25.
He said the suspect told him, “Hey, n_____, I’m going to kick your a__.” The victim went into the laundry room and closed the door, but he said the suspect followed him and punched him in the face several times. He said the suspect tried to throw him to the floor too but wasn’t successful. He said the suspect left and headed north in the complex.
The responding officer didn’t see any marks, bruises or cuts on the victim.
Oct. 26
Champions Drive (felony vandalism)
The same victim in the Oct. 25 Somerset Apartments laundry room assault said his assailant and others vandalized his car the next day.
He said he emerged from his apartment around 2:30 p.m. Oct. 26 to find three suspects around his 2004 Ford F-150. He heard one say, “Here he comes,” and then he saw the man who attacked him the previous day break his passenger side mirror. He said the three then fled northbound and yelled, “F___ you, Muslim!”
The victim said he fears the retaliation will continue and that things will escalate.
Ace Drive (simple assault)
A woman reported an Oct. 26 assault but said the conflict began at an earlier date.
In the earlier incident, she said she saw a male (Suspect 1) vandalizing property in her apartment complex gazebo, throwing furniture and cushions on the ground. She asked him to pick them up, but he began to verbally accost her and us racial epithets.
In the Oct. 26 incident, she was standing on the sidewalk when Suspect 1 and his accomplices approached her as they walked in the street. Suspects 1 and 2 came to the sidewalk, and she said Suspect 1 acted like he was looking down when he put both arms out in front of him and shoved her hard in the chest, knocking her backwards. She said he told her to “stay off the f______ sidewalk!” Both men then began to swear at her, with Suspect 2 telling her, “We’ll go get our Rebel flags and run your a__ over,” she said.
The victim said she fears the bullying and terroristic acts toward her will continue.
Suspect 1 is already a suspect in another felony vandalism report that occurred just before this incident, and he is also listed in an Oct. 25 assault report.
Oct. 27
Hadley Drive (residential burglary)
A woman housesitting for someone reported a disturbing intrusion at the home on Oct. 27. She said she arrived around 9 p.m. and let the owner’s two dogs into the back yard. The smaller dog escaped about 20 minutes later. She walked outside and shut the back door completely before searching for the dog for about 10 minutes. When she returned, the rear door to the home was open.
She entered anyway and found several items had been moved and opened, including food taken out of the fridge, pillows moved on the bed, and her toiletry bag moved from the master bathroom and opened. She didn’t think too much about these change until the two dogs became alert and began barking and growling. Her father came and cleared the lower level of the home before leaving with her for the night.
She was unable to advise if any items were taken but was certain of several items that were moved throughout the residence. She said the owner would be able to advise if and what was taken from the residence when she arrived back in town on Oct. 30. The responding deputy observed no damages to the rear door where entry was believed to have been made.
Oct. 28
Autumnlight (non-specific other theft)
A woman reported that two white females in a silver SUV pulled up to her mailbox around 8 a.m. Oct. 28, took her mail and fled south. She said the only mail she had received were various bills, and she couldn’t provide any suspect information. The responding deputy observed the victim’s security video attesting to the incident.
Oct. 29
Daly Drive (misdemeanor vandalism)
Someone broke a globe yard lamp ($50) at a home on the 9500 block of Daly Drive, the victim reported on Oct. 29. It happened between 10 p.m. Oct. 28 and 8 a.m. Oct. 29.
The owner didn’t know who broke the lamp but said he found two candy/food wrappers in the yard by the lamp, and he believes some neighborhood kids did it. There were no known suspects, witnesses or security cameras in the area. The victim said they have a camera at their front door but it doesn’t record.
