The Shelby County Sheriff’s Office handled the following incidents in Arlington during the first half of September. For later September incidents, see next 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.
Sept. 1
Evening Mist Drive (residential burglary)
A woman reported $8,700 of items stolen on Sept. 1, right after a suspicious stranger came to the house, asking for work. She left her home on the 5300 block of Evening Mist Drive at 6:20 a.m. and returned around 5 p.m. to find her garage door was up.
Inside, she found that the following items were missing: An HP Chromebook, an Allevino laptop, an HP all-in-one monitor, multiple rings, a Windham assault rifle, a Stevens/J. Stevens shotgun and a Sony Playstation gaming unit. She couldn’t immediately provide the serial numbers for the firearms.
The responding officer noticed damage to the garage door, and the victim said that wasn’t there previously. She also said she leaves the door between the garage and the home unlocked. She has had a garage remote stolen from one of her vehicles in the past, as well. The victim also noticed that the key pad to the garage was up, and she said the family never uses the key pad because they forgot the key code to the garage.
The victim also commented that a man who said he was an AT&T contractor came to the home a week earlier asking to do contractor work, but he was asked to leave when he couldn’t provide a work ID or proof of employment. She said he returned after her husband left and tried again, asking to see the interior of the home.
The responding officer talked to neighbors, but no one had seen or heard anything unusual on the day of the burglary. One neighbor said the home’s garage door was closed when he was home from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
Sept. 3
Interstate 40 and Mile Marker 31 (recovery/foreign with arrest)
An officer was traveling east on I-40 near Exit 24/25 and spotted a red Kia Soul speeding. The officer paced it at 90 mph in a 65 mph zone and then activated emergency lights and sirens in an effort to stop the Kia.
The driver kept going at about 80 mph until heavier traffic forced him to slow to around 75 mph. A sergeant told the officer to discontinue pursuit, so the officer complied but stayed eastbound while looking for a place to turn around. The Kia slowed around then, and the officer was able to pass it, slow down, put on his emergency lights and stop traffic.
When the officer approached the car, the male driver appeared disoriented and unable to follow verbal commands. The driver resisted being detained, and the officer tried escalating efforts to stop the resistance: Three bursts of chemical spray and two strikes to the calf with a baton, none of which stopped the resistance. A passing federal agent of the National Nuclear Security Administration Office of Secure Transportation stopped to help, and the driver was taken into custody without further incident.
Fayette Emergency Medical Services made the scene and evaluated the driver, who refused medical care. Victory Towing removed his vehicle. The driver got medical clearance at Regional One before being processed at the jail. The officer’s vehicle recorder was activated during the attempted traffic stop and at the time of arrest.
Arkansas State University Police later placed the Kia on the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) database, and the arresting SCSO officer received notification within 13 minutes.
U.S. 70 (misdemeanor shoplifting)
An employee at Fred’s (11888 U.S. 70) reported a shoplifting attempt on Sept. 3. The employee said a white female and a black female seemed to be working together. They were talking before the white female tried to leave with a basket full of unpurchased items. When the door alarm sounded, the black female left the store emptyhanded.
A male employee told the white female the cash register was at the other exit if she wanted to buy the items, but she pushed the basket to the side and left the store.
No further information is known about either suspect, and no items were stolen.
Sept. 5
Arlington Trace Drive (misdemeanor vandalism)
Someone vandalized a woman’s car left parked on the street on Sept. 5. Someone broke the rear window ($300) of her Kia Amanti sometime between 5:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. The responding deputy found a rock smaller than a golf ball sitting on the car’s trunk.
The victim said she hasn’t had arguments with anyone and doesn’t know who might have wanted to damage her vehicle.
Sept. 8
Memphis Arlington Road (felony vandalism)
Someone vandalized three sides of the Arlington Sports Complex, the park manager reported on Sept. 8. He found the graffiti when he was prepping the park, located at 11307 Memphis Arlington Road. The damage happened sometime between 3 p.m. Sept. 5 and the time of the report.
Estimated cost of repairs is $500 for labor and materials. The responding officer took crime scene photos of the damages.
Sept. 9
U.S. 70 (misdemeanor shoplifting)
The manager of Dollar General (12035 U.S. 70) reported a female shoplifter making off with $87 in goods stuffed in her purse on Sept. 9. Items stolen included a T-shirt, shoes, unspecified makeup, Gain detergent, soap, deocorant and an unspecified toiletry item.
The store’s surveillance video showed a black woman wearing a pink tank top, pink/gray Spandex pants, a gold head cover and sunglasses on her head conceal those items in her purse and go past the point of purchase without paying. The suspect left in a silver SUV, and the report included a partial license plate number.
Sept. 10
Melanie Creek Cove (theft from motor vehicle)
Someone stole from a work vehicle parked at a man’s home on the 5200 block of Melanie Creek Cove on Sept. 10. The victim is an officer with the Union Pacific Railroad Police, and the vehicle is a take-home work vehicle.
He said the theft happened between 3 p.m. and 8 p.m. He went out to his vehicle and saw that his work Fujitsu laptop and bag were missing from the right rear passenger’s side floorboard. He was also missing a Verizon MiFi, a Tritronics K9 training collar, his Union Pacific employee ID card and Union Pacific Police challenge coins.
The responding officer saw no signs of forced entry into the vehicle. All doors were locked, and the alarm system’s light was flashing in an armed state. There was no workable crime scene. The laptop’s information was entered into the NCIC database.
