The Shelby County Sheriff’s Office (SCSO) reported the following incidents in Lakeland during the second half of October. See the Nov. 19 issue of The Bartlett Express for incidents earlier in the month.
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. 18
Canada Road (simple assault/domestic violence)
A witness reported seeing a man hit a woman and drag her by her hair into a vehicle in the McDonald’s parking lot (3701 Canada Road). It was around 2:35 a.m. Nov. 18, and the suspect drove off with her.
He drove southbound on Canada Road and reportedly punched her again while stopped at the intersection of Interstate 40 and Canada Road, and the victim was able to hit back once.
Witnesses followed the two south until they were just north of U.S. 64 on Canada Road. Then woman tried to jump out although the vehicle was still moving, but the suspect dragged her back into the vehicle by her hair again.
She was able to get free on Canada Road near ATC Fitness (2991 U.S. 64). The man circled the parking lot and then drove north on Canada Road.
The witnesses pulled over to help the woman, and an AMR ambulance arrived. The victim declined medical attention.
Oct. 19
Canada Road (theft from motor vehicle)
A couple reported on Oct. 19 that someone stole weapons from their vehicles overnight.
The man said they parked their vehicles around 8 p.m. Oct. 18. Around 8:30 a.m. the next day, he discovered the weapons were missing.
Items taken included a Rossi, Amadeo, & Co. revolver from his BMW’s glove compartment and a Taurus revolver from the center console of his wife’s GMC Yukon.
No latent prints were available, but crime scene photos were taken. A Shelby County dispatcher also entered the serial numbers of both handguns into the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) database.
Village Drive (intimidation/domestic violence)
A man reported on Oct. 19 that his grandson was becoming more aggressive toward him and had threatened him that morning. He said the grandson pulled his fist back and said, “I’ll knock the gold out of your teeth.”
The grandson makes threats when his grandfather doesn’t do what he wants him to do, the grandfather said.
The grandfather speculated that the grandson’s behavior is caused by an out-of-control drug problem, and he wants the young man to get help.
He also said he fears his grandson will follow through on his threats and hurt him. He said his grandson doesn’t think clearly because of past and present drug abuse.
The responding officer noted that there was a report on Oct. 8 of the same grandson yelling and cursing at his grandfather.
U.S. 64 (simple assault)
An irate customer’s behavior led to a fight the evening of Oct. 19 at Sprouts (9050 U.S. 64). The customer said he returned because he left groceries at the store. He went to the meat counter and spoke to a female, Employee #1. Employee #2 came from behind the counter and told the man to stop yelling at his colleague. Employee #3 then saw the customer yelling at the male employee and asked him to stop.
The customer reportedly spat in the face of Employee #3, who pushed him to the ground and punched the side of his head. Employee #1 pulled her colleague off the customer.
The customer said Employee #3 tried to calm him down but also hit him in the chest and blew air in his face while the customer was speaking politely to him. The customer said he then blew air in the face of Employee #3, who pushed him to the ground and punched his head three times.
A shopper (also employed at Sprouts but not on duty) witnessed the exchange and saw the customer spit in Employee #3’s face. The witness also said at no time did the employee spit or blow air in the customer’s face. Employee #1 backed up the story of her fighting colleague and said she can provide some audio recording of the exchange.
There are no cameras in the area where the fight happened, and the responding officer saw no markings on either Employee #3 or the customer.
Oct. 21
Knob Hill (theft from building/access device)
A man cashed a check on a woman’s Navy Federal account without permission, she reported Oct. 21. The incident happened between 8 a.m. Oct. 10 and 4:10 p.m. Oct. 21.
Her bank notified her on Oct. 21. She believes that her ex-husband, who stayed at her residence on Oct. 10, may have taken her checks. (The check was cashed by a man using a different name, the bank stated.) The victim said she does not take her checkbook outside of her home. She also said there was no stamp on the back of the forged check to show where it was cashed.
Her ex had left by the time the responding officer arrived, but a license plate check on the vehicle he was driving came back with the name of another woman.
Her ex drove the vehicle to the woman’s home. It appeared at first that the woman’s vehicle had been reported stolen, but that was later clarified. Upon locating the car, the responding officer saw the victim’s checkbook in plain sight inside the car along with checks belonging to another six people.
Canabridge Drive (identity theft)
A man reported on Oct. 21 he received two credit cards at his old address on Hobbs Cove, but he never requested the American Express or Fidelity Investments cards.
His credit report showed that someone opened both accounts using his name and date of birth sometime since Sept. 25. Neither card had been used at the time of the report.
Oct. 25
Unspecified address (simple assault/ domestic violence)
Officers met a victim at Saint Francis – Bartlett Hospital (2986 Kate Bond Road) on Oct. 25. The woman, a Beverle Rivera Drive resident, reported two unknown white females assaulted her at a bonfire off Millington Arlington Road.
After questioning, the woman admitted that she lied because she was afraid of what her boyfriend might do to her.
She said the real story is that a friend drove her to pick up her boyfriend from work around 10:30 p.m. He got in the back seat, and she stayed in the front passenger seat. On the way home, he got angry and struck her in the face with a cell phone, she said.
The friend dropped them off, and then he told her to come on and get a beating.
They walked to the park, and he told her to bend over. She did, and he beat her continuously for about 10 minutes on her legs, arms and back. They walked back to her home, where she sneaked him in, and he stayed until 3 p.m. Later, the victim called her friend to take her to the hospital because she was hurting.
The responding officer saw bruises on the woman and called a crime scene tech to the scene to take photos in the presence of a witnessing nurse.
Oct. 26
Ace Drive (residential burglary)
A woman reported a burglary on Oct. 26. She said they must have entered using a key hidden under a flowerpot near the front door.
When she got home around 6 p.m. Oct. 23, she noticed a $20 bill was missing from a spot in her living room The next day, she noticed makeup was missing from her bedroom and some clothes were missing from her closet.
An unknown source told her that a juvenile in her apartment complex was seen wearing her clothes at school on Oct. 26. The source said the suspect claimed she had gone shopping.
The victim provide the name of the suspect, a 10th grader at Arlington High School.
She told the officer that the source was a mother of another student at the school, but she couldn’t remember the mother’s name.
The woman also said the juvenile was at her own apartment without a parent present, and she asked the responding officer to simply retrieve her belongings.
The victim was unhappy when the officer asked how she could identify the property as hers. The officer advised her that the SCSO would ensure the child was represented by an adult, there would be no violations of search and seizure requirements, and that witness/third-party information would need to be developed.
She told the officer that when her boyfriend gets home and the child’s mother returns from work she will go to their apartment and get her property.
The officer advised her that doing so could jeopardize the investigation.
Oct. 27
Rue Bienville Place (pretenses/swindle/confidence game)
Someone tried using an IRS phone scam to trick a woman out of money, but she didn’t fall for the spiel.
She received a message earlier that day, telling her to call a certain number for the IRS immediately.
A man, Mark, answered with a pronounced foreign accent (perhaps Indian), she said. He said he was in the IRS fraud department and claimed she had not paid her taxes between 2008 and 2013.
He said she had several outstanding warrants, and she could pay by phone or be arrested within 24 hours. He asked if she had a lawyer and requested the lawyer’s name and phone number.
She refused to pay, said she would contact her lawyer herself, and hung up.
She believed the call was a scam because the man made no reference of her husband, who she has filed jointly with since they married.
Oct. 28
Breckenridge Cove (statutory rape)
This incident, reported on Oct. 28, happened during the period of Oct. 1-28. Additional information is not publicly available at this time.
Oct. 30
King Bridge Cove (non-residential burglary)
A man reported someone stole multiple items from his garage on Oct. 30. He got home around 4:05 p.m. and left his garage door open for a few minutes. A neighbor notified him that someone was in the garage while he was inside. The suspect was a white male driving what appeared to be a maroon Ford Taurus or Mercury Sable.
Items taken from the garage included a yellow-and-black Brute power washer ($200) and a red-and-black Craftsman weed trimmer ($180).
The responding deputy tried unsuccessfully to contact the neighbor who reported seeing the suspect.
El Hill Road (simple assault/domestic violence)
A man reported that his stepson was being violent at home and might be on drugs.
He said he tried to get the suspect to leave the house for the night, but he became agitated and aggressive, picking up bricks from the backyard walkway and throwing them around while shouting, “I laid these!” He said his stepson then approached and punched him in the face while threatening harm.
The victim said his stepson grabbed some of his belongings upstairs and left with his brother in an unknown direction.
Officers responded just before midnight on Oct. 30, but observed no visible injuries to the victim.
The victim said his wife witnessed the altercation but grabbed the young children and left the house to protect them. She didn’t return while officers were on scene, and they were not able to make contact with her.
Oct. 31
Justin Lake (residential burglary)
A woman reported some medication was stolen from her trailer between 5 p.m. Oct. 30 and about 2 a.m. Oct. 31.
When she returned, she saw her dog’s collar on her bed and began to worry that someone had entered her mobile home through the floor.
She believes people are messing with her by lifting a panel near the front exterior of her mobile home and entering through the floor in her closet.
She said she feels forced to place cinder blocks over her closet floor in order to keep intruders out.
She checked her medications and noticed that about 80 Hydrocodone (7.5 mg) and nine Diazepam (5 mg) were missing from her medicine cabinet.
The responding deputies observed the closet floor to be properly secured with no damage. They also saw no damages to the exterior of her home or a possible entryway to her closet.
They did see her empty medicine bottles.
The victim also told deputies she has been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and split personality disorder.
