The Shelby County Sheriff’s Office (SCSO) handled the following events in Lakeland during the first half of March 2016. See the April 28 issue for the remaining incidents from March.
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.
March 3
Canada Road (simple assault)
A frustrated drive-thru customer at McDonald’s (3665 Canada Road) decided to take a swing rather than just complain on March 3. She received the wrong order, so she threw the two caramel sundaes at the wall around the drive-thru window and then reached in the window and tried to strike the manager with her fists.
The manager closed the window, and the enraged customer struck the window with her fists. The victim wouldn’t reopen the window, so the suspect drove off. She was last seen southbound on Canada Road.
March 6
Fletcher Trace Parkway (aggravated assault/domestic violence)
A few questions between brothers turned into a violent brawl just after midnight in the early hours of March 6.
When deputies arrived, they found the first brother lying facedown in the carport with a large laceration to the back left side of his head. The second and third brothers were standing outside the carport.
The second brother said he was in the kitchen, cooking and eating, when his brother came home from a bar and got irate at a few questions: The second brother asked where the spray rigs were, and the first brother tried to punch him in the face before heading to his bedroom, where he punched holes in the door. The second brother followed, still asking where to find the spray rigs. The first brother punched him in the thigh, knocking the second brother to the ground. While he was on the ground, the first brother jumped atop him and began pounding him in the head with an unknown object and then bit him on the left forearm. The two exchanged punches, and the brother on top tried to gouge out one of the second brother’s eyes.
The second brother said he then grabbed a golf club and hit his brother on the back of his head twice, trying to end the fight. The second brother tried to leave, but the angry first brother rose and attacked him. They exchanged punches again in the hallway before the second brother could escape the home.
The third brother said he was upstairs when the fight began, but he saw the two fighting in the hallway. He backed up the second brother’s statement that he tried to leave. Another family member at the scene said she has vision problems but could hear a lot of commotion.
One ambulance took the first brother to Regional One in critical condition. Another ambulance took the second brother to the same hospital in stable condition. The second brother had what looked like teeth marks that broke the skin on his left forearm, and he said the brother that attacked him has hepatitis.
The responding deputies saw two golf clubs at the scene, one in the hallway and another in the kitchen. Both appeared to have blood on them. The officers took one of the clubs into custody as evidence. No arrests were made at the time of the report.
March 7
Grays Creek Road (embezzlement)
A simple traffic stop earlier this year led to the discovery of more $18,000 in property stolen from Shelby County Schools. An officer responded to a March 7 call about the embezzlement at the school district’s storage warehouse on Grays Creek Road.
Back on the night of January 28, two officers stopped a gray Dodge Neon at Breckenwood and Circle Road for a missing headlight. During the stop, one officer saw several projectors in plain view with Board of Education property stickers on them.
When questioned, the driver said it was old equipment scheduled for discard at work, so he kept the items.
The officers received information at the scene that the equipment might have been stolen, so they seized the projectors until an investigation could be completed.
A spokesman for the school district said the driver was a third-party temporary employee working for Shelby County Schools. His job duties were to move equipment between schools and the warehouse.
The investigating officer checked pawn shop databases and discovered that the suspect had pawned 19 other projectors and three laptops. An audit at Shelby County Schools found that all the pawned items had been stolen from the warehouse. The suspect had no permission to take or pawn any of the district’s property.
The total amount of property stolen amounted to $18,633.
Kingsridge Drive (intimidation/domestic violence)
A woman reported March 7 that her ex-husband had been harassing her and she was in fear of him. She saw someone she thinks was him in her yard between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. March 5, so she went inside and locked all the doors.
The next day, he sent her a book and a sexually explicit letter stating he wanted sex, she said. This was despite the fact she’s told him multiple times to stay away and that she’s not interested in him. She also said that, in the past, he has waited for her at her workplace and even gone into her home without her knowledge. She is unsure of his mental status at this time.
March 8
Canada Road (simple assault/domestic violence)
A man’s request for money turned into a physical fight March 8 when the couple were parked at a Waffle House restaurant (3640 Canada Road).
The woman didn’t answer when he asked for money, and he got angry, yelled and grabbed her arm, she said. When she tried to call the police, he took her phone, so she ran into Waffle House and asked an employee to call 911. She said he followed her inside, kept yelling and slammed her $900 Apple iPhone on the ground, breaking it. She ran into the bathroom and locked herself inside.
A witness also saw the man yelling, screaming and beating on a table.
The responding officers saw three scratches on the victim’s upper right arm, and a crime scene tech took photos of the injuries. They took the man to the Shelby County Jail.
March 11
Triumph Circle (misdemeanor vandalism)
A woman reported on March 11 that a juvenile male caused a disturbance and damage when he visited to talk to her daughter, and it’s not the first incident with him.
She said he arrived around 7:30 p.m., banging on her door and possibly kicking it. The mother came outside and found out that he wanted to talk to her daughter. She told him the daughter wasn’t home, and then she noticed a new front door dent and a broken halogen bulb in front of her door. He left the scene on foot.
Another officer located the suspect in the area and was taken to juvenile court on charges of vandalism and other violations.
Barley Mills Drive (simple assault)
A stranger interrupting a family cookout on March 11 now faces charges. The victim and his son were cooking hamburgers in the back yard when a male by the fence asked for a hamburger.
When the father told him, “No, go away,” he said the suspect threatened to rob him and pulled his hoodie over his head. The suspect and two other males fled when the victim said he was calling the SCSO. The trio ran toward Somerset at Lakeland Apartments.
The responding officer was able to catch up with the three males. The one who made the threat said his friends had nothing to do with it and were just with him. He was taken to juvenile court and charged with simple assault in this case and with vandalism in regards to a separate report.
March 13
Potter Way (residential burglary)
A garage entry alarm woke a Lakeland woman at 3:40 a.m. March 13, and she assumed at first the wind had activated it. She looked out the window before walking outside.
A person wearing a dark hoodie was standing there. She screamed and started banging on the wall to wake her husband, and the suspect ran away.
Her husband told responding officers that they found the garage entry door open and the light in their vehicle was on. It appeared that someone had entered the unlocked garage and rummaged through the unlocked vehicle.
The husband said nothing appeared to be missing. Deputies searched the area but couldn’t locate the suspect. The report noted that several houses are under construction in the gated community, and workers are coming and going from the neighborhood.
Herons Point (theft from motor vehicle)
Someone stole $2,400 of weaponry and electronics from a work vehicle a Lakeland man had parked in his driveway. The crime happened between 7 p.m. March 12 and 9:30 a.m. March 13.
The victim is a special agent with the Tennessee Alcohol Beverage Commission and said the following items were taken from his vehicle: An OD green nylon long gun zip-up case ($200); a black Double Star AR-15 rifle, .223 caliber with an attached light and EO Tech sight ($800); a black Remington 870/12-gauge shotgun with a pistol grip ($400); a black Glock 23/40 caliber with attached Surefire light ($700); two boxes of Remington .223 rifle ammunition ($50); two boxes of Winchester .40 caliber ammunition ($50); and a silver Apple iPhone 5 in a black case ($200).
The victim said additional items might be missing, and he didn’t have the serial numbers for the firearms with him.
His wife discovered the theft the next morning when she spotted several items from the vehicle lying on their driveway.
There was no alarm on the vehicle and no known damage. There were no known suspects, witnesses or security cameras in the area. The report noted that this theft may be related to similar thefts in the area. An officer took crime scene photos and lifted latent fingerprints.
Loch Meade Drive (theft from motor vehicle)
A thief may have been caught on multiple surveillance systems when taking a man’s handgun in March. The victim said he parked his Chevrolet Silverado in his driveway around 11 p.m. March 12. The next morning, his Kimber handgun was missing from the console.
His security system showed an unknown person entering the vehicle from the driver’s side door at 5:47 a.m. The victim was not sure if the vehicle was locked or unlocked, and deputies saw no damage to the truck.
The victim said he will get a copy of an across-the-street neighbor’s surveillance footage and provide to officers, too. The handgun’s information was entered into the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) database.
Herons Point (theft from motor vehicle)
Officers on scene for another crime on March 13 were flagged down about an attempted theft from an unlocked motor vehicle on Herons Point. The victim said someone ransacked his truck while it was parked in his driveway. He found his center console and glove compartments open, and there were papers on the front passenger seat. Nothing was taken.
The crime happened between 9 p.m. March 12 and 10 a.m. the next morning. The truck doesn’t have an alarm system, and there was no damage to it.
The report noted that the incident may be related to similar ones in the area during the same time period. An officer took crime scene photos and lifted latent fingerprints. There were no known suspects, witnesses or security cameras in the area.
Lock Meade Drive (theft from motor vehicle)
Their car alarm woke a couple on Loch Meade Drive around 1 a.m. March 13.
When she looked out the window, she saw the interior light on and the lights flashing, indicating the alarm was going off.
Around 7:55 a.m. she unlocked her 2016 Subaru and noticed that someone had dumped all the contents of her purse onto the driver’s seat. She took her purse and went to church.
Afterwards, she asked her daughter about the dumped purse and then called the SCSO once she found out her daughter was not involved. The responding officers saw no signs of forced entry, and a crime scene officer toko photos and lifted a print from the driver’s side door near the vehicle’s roof.
Items stolen included credit cards for Sears, Macy’s and Toys-R-Us; a Navy Federal Credit Union credit card and a Nikon digital camera. The camera couldn’t be placed in the NCIC database because the serial number was unavailable.
Loch Meade Drive (theft from motor vehicle)
A woman reported on March 13 that someone had ransacked her 2002 Cadillac Escalade, but nothing seemed to be missing. She found the center console open and signs that the SUV had been ransacked.
Officers lifted fingerprints from the driver’s side door and took photos. The victim said she has video surveillance on the front of her home but didn’t know the password, so she will have to get someone else to access the cameras.
There was no suspect information available, but the report noted that there were several other thefts in the same area.
