The Shelby County Sheriff’s Office (SCSO) reported handling the following incidents in Lakeland during the month of November.
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.
Nov. 1
East Davies Plantation Road (theft from motor vehicle)
Someone broke into a truck parked behind the Cracker Barrel Old Country Store (9649 E. Davies Plantation Road) between 11:40 a.m. and 1 p.m. Nov. 1. The owner found the rear passenger side window of his GM Sierra shattered and a black shaving kit bag had been stolen. The bag contained several prescription drug bottles, but he did not remember the types of medication.
A crime scene technician took photos, but there were no latent prints. The store manager advised that a security video disk would be available within a couple of days.
Three Iron Drive (theft from motor vehicle)
An employee at the Custom Tees kiosk in the Wolfchase Galleria reported that someone stole approximately $800 to $1,000 of the business’s money from his car between Oct. 31 and Nov. 1. He manages the money from day to day, keeping it in four envelopes that he brings home at the end of his work shifts. He leaves the envelopes in his car’s glove compartment nightly, and his manager collects the funds on Saturdays.
On Nov. 1, the employee found that two envelopes were missing, and the two remaining ones were torn open. He named two friends who had been at his home on the 9200 block of Three Iron Drive the previous night as the only ones who had access to his vehicle. The victim said he always locks the car, and the responding officer saw no damage or signs of forced entry.
Nov. 3
Cutter Cove (simple assault/domestic violence)
A Cutter Cove resident said his wife assaulted him when he confronted her on Nov. 3 about an alleged affair his private investigator had discovered, but she said he was the one who got violent. The couple have had problems for about two years, and he filed for a divorce in April.
He said the fight began when she got home around 1 p.m., and the argument escalated into a physical altercation that took them from the kitchen to the master bedroom. She swung at him, striking his face and neck, he said. The responding officers saw red marks on the right side of his neck, but the husband declined medical attention. The man said he grabbed his wife to stop her from hitting him again.
During the incident, she ripped phones out of the wall, threw a kitchen drawer onto the floor and threatened to burn the house down, he said. He was on the phone with his private investigator while the incident was occurring. He left the house and met officers at a nearby restaurant.
The wife’s account differed. She said he choked her from behind, lifting her up off the floor, when the fight got to the bedroom. The responding officers saw that her neck was red, but she refused medical attention. She said she tried to elbow him while he was choking her, so he released her, then choked her and released her again.
She said he was the one who yanked the phones out of the wall when she tried to call police. They moved the fight into the kitchen, where she threw the drawer down and threatened to torch the house. She said she went to a neighbor’s house to call law enforcement, but no one was home.
Responding officers could not tell who was the primary aggressor, so they took both people into custody. The couple agreed to allow the husband’s sister to keep their young children overnight. One of the responding officers took photos of the couple’s injuries and the house.
Nov. 6
Gillespie Oak Drive (simple assault/domestic violence)
A woman on Gillespie Oak Drive said her boyfriend offended her in the early hours of Nov. 6 after a night out when he started comparing her to his ex-wife. They were still arguing when they went to bed, so he got up and tried to leave. She jumped into the car to keep him from driving off because they had both been drinking.
She said he punched her in the face and head, pushed her out of the car, and threw her against a wall and onto the concrete floor, where he choked her until she couldn’t breathe. She didn’t lose consciousness. Then he stopped the assault, went in the house and locked her in the garage.
She escaped, entered the house through a rear door and found him in bed. She told him to leave, but he cursed at her and told her to leave. She refused, and he kept cursing her as he was leaving. She got angry and slapped his back, so he kicked and hit her. He had left by the time deputies arrived.
A medical unit arrived and checked the woman’s bruises and abrasions, but she refused transportation to the hospital or to a safe place. A crime scene tech took photos of her injuries, bruises on both biceps and abrasions on her face.
Davies Plantation Road (theft from building)
A director at Stonebridge Golf Club (3049 Davies Plantation Road) reported an employee on Nov. 6 as a suspect in recent thefts, based on information from the golf course superintendent. Items stolen over the past few weeks included an Echo weed trimmer ($250), four new golf cart batteries ($90 each), and 4 used golf cart batteries ($25 each).
The superintendent described catching the suspect in another theft, when he noticed a chainsaw was missing around 9:30 a.m. on Nov. 6. The superintendent followed the suspect when his work shift ended. The suspect drove to the old Kroger Building on Fletcher Trace Parkway, pulled the missing chainsaw from a trashcan near the car wash and put it in his car’s trunk. The superintendent confronted him and took the chainsaw back. The suspect was not on scene when the responding officer arrived.
Nov. 8
East Davies Plantation Road (theft from motor vehicle)
Some broke into a pickup in the parking lot of Cracker Barrel Old Country Store (9649 E. Davies Plantation Road) between 8 a.m. and 8:30 a.m. Nov. 8. A couple said they parked their green Nissan Titan on the lot’s east side. When they returned, the passenger side window was shattered, and the following items had been stolen from the passenger seat: A black-and-white suitcase containing women’s clothing and a black suitcase containing an Apple iPad, $700 in cash, a Sauer watch, a Celtic ring, and a Celtic bracelet. The man did not have a serial number for the iPad or any GPS/tracking software installed on it.
One of the responding officers took photos and dusted for prints, but no latent prints were available. The restaurant manager said he could provide a surveillance tape if needed.
Nov. 9
Canada Road (theft from motor vehicle)
A man reported that someone stole his wallet from his vehicle’s armrest on Nov. 9 while he was in a store on the 3500 block of Canada Road, buying items with his bank card. When he came out of the store, he saw four people (two black males and two black females) quickly drive away in a brown or tan SUV, possibly a Chevy Tahoe. The theft occurred between 12:10 a.m. and 1:11 a.m.
The store clerk said the manager is available on weekdays and can provide access to surveillance footage.
The victim said someone tried to use his Orion Bank credit card shortly after the theft, but the bank could not tell him where.
Nov. 10
Old Brunswick Road (motor vehicle theft/motorcycle)
Someone stole a tilt trailer ($750) carrying a 450 Foreman four-wheeler ($4,000) from a home on the 5900 block of Old Brunswick Road on Nov. 10. The victim said the theft occurred between 3:30 a.m. and 5:50 a.m.
The trailer was hitched to his truck in the front yard, and the owner didn’t have a lock on the trailer or the four-wheeler. He could not provide serial numbers of the stolen items at the time of the report. The responding officer saw tire tracks in the man’s yard, but the crime scene could not be processed.
Trotter Drive (non-residential burglary)
A resident on the 9500 block of Trotter Drive said his home was burglarized on Oct. 27, and then four days later he noticed a window was open on the south side of his backyard shop. Nothing was stolen, but someone had ransacked several drawers.
He reported his discovery on Nov. 10. A responding officer took photos and processed the scene for fingerprints. The victim said he took photos of footprints from the original burglary that match footprints left inside the shop. Because of the elapsed time, the officer wasn’t able to determine if both burglaries occurred at the same time.
Conifer View Lane (theft from motor vehicle)
A woman said someone stole her purse from her unlocked GM Envoy while it was parked at her child’s daycare on Nov. 10. Her purse was in plain view in the vehicle while she was picking up her child, between 5:45 p.m. and 6 p.m. at Learning Tree Daycare (9667 Davies Plantation Road).
She had no suspect information and didn’t know if anything else was missing at the time of the report.
Nov. 12
Ace Drive (burglary/domestic violence)
A resident on the 9200 block of Ace Drive said her boyfriend burglarized her apartment around 7:15 p.m. on Nov. 15. She hasn’t spoken to him in months because of his problems with drugs and his past encounters with law enforcement. He started texting her that day and said he was coming to her apartment complex to visit a friend, then asked to warm up at her apartment when the friend wasn’t home.
She told him not to come over, but shortly afterward he banged on her front door anyway. She yelled at him to leave, and he refused. He went around to her side French door and banged on it, and she continued telling him to leave. She said he then kicked in her French door, barged into her living room, grabbed her dog and ran out the apartment’s front door to the complex’s mailroom.
She called SCSO from the mailroom, but the suspect had left by the time officers arrived. She said he didn’t take anything with him and didn’t harm or threaten her. She declined transportation or medical attention. A detective arrived to take photos and a victim’s statement.
Nov. 16
Plantation Wood Drive (theft from motor vehicle)
A resident on the 10300 block of Plantation Wood Drive reported a suspicious vehicle on Nov. 14 and noticed some items missing on Nov. 16. The victim saw a green pickup parked across the street with a couch in the truck bed. Around 8:30 p.m. on Nov. 14. He said a neighbor called Shelby County Dispatch about the truck, noting that the owner has a history of burglary.
The resident said he noticed the truck was gone when he woke up at midnight on Nov. 15, and he didn’t see anyone walking around in the neighborhood all that morning while he was hanging exterior Christmas lights. Then he got in his Ford F-250 at 12:30 p.m. Nov. 16 and noticed it was in disarray. Itme stolen included a Craftsman toolbox ($110) and $50 in cash.
The vehicle was locked, but he found a wire clothes hanger nearby that could have been used to unlock it. The responding officers couldn’t see any signs of forced entry along the truck’s door gasket.
Nov. 20
New Brunswick Road, Memphis (other larceny/access device)
A resident on the 9700 block of Green Ridge Cove said someone used his Regions check card without permission after he forgot to retrieve it from his server at O’Charlies (2844 New Brunswick Road, Memphis). He and his wife dined there around 7 p.m. Nov. 19. He didn’t realize his oversight until he tried to buy items at AutoZone on Nov. 20.
He contacted his bank and learned that someone had already used the card at several places, including a $35.85 cell phone purchase at NOOR Enterprise around 10 p.m. Nov. 19.
Canada Road (aggravated assault)
A man walked out of Walgreens (2960 Canada Road) shortly after 3 p.m. Nov. 20 and caught a white man who appeared to be in his 20s sticking a business card under one of his truck’s windshield wipers. The truck owner asked the man what he was selling, and the man said, “I’m not selling — I’m doing.”
The suspect then vandalized the driver’s side rear fender of the victim’s Ford F350 with a knife and said, “Next time it won’t be your vehicle – it will be you.” Then he left in a Chevrolet Silverado, driving onto Canada Road toward Interstate 40.
The victim reported the suspect’s license plate number and described him as being about six feet one inch tall and weighing about 180 lbs. The business card contained profanity; paraphrased, it said the truck driver parked badly, and next time his vehicle would be keyed.
The Silverado was registered to a Millington resident. An officer went to the suspect’s residence but didn’t see a vehicle fitting the description.
El Hill Road (residential burglary)
Someone stole furniture, tools and other items from a recently deceased man’s home on the 9500 block of El Hill Road. His daughter said the thefts occurred between 2 p.m. Nov. 19 and 2:15 p.m. Nov. 20. Items stolen include a buffet ($500), cabinet ($300), bed ($500), Craftsman air compressor ($800), Craftsman tiller ($650), Craftsman chainsaw ($200), Honda lawnmower ($650), grinder ($169), Craftsman spray gun ($189), jigsaw ($169), two miter saws ($500) and Echo weed trimmer ($399). No serial numbers were available at the time of the report.
The victim said there was no forced entry, and she named her uncle and cousin as possible suspects because the uncle had keys to the residence. She said that she and her sister were the only two who had legal access to the house.
Three neighbors said they saw two SUVs, possibly a Jeep Cherokee and a Jeep Wrangler, at the property, with two heavyset white males moving things out of the house around 4:30 p.m. Nov. 19 and around 11 a.m. on Nov. 20.
U.S. 64 (business burglary)
The manager at Backyard Burger (9000 U.S. 64) said someone broke in and stole $900 in cash the night of Nov. 20. He noticed the alarm was not set on the door when he arrived on Nov. 21, and then he saw the safe was open with empty cash drawers on the floor.
A responding officer took crime scene photos and lifted prints from the front door.
The manager suspected it was an inside job because only he, the district manager and the shift leader had the safe’s passcode. The district manager was on vacation, but the shift leader closed the business the night of the burglary. Her boyfriend also worked at the business. The manager interviewed the shift leader, but she said she didn’t know anything about the burglary.
The responding officers pulled photos of the suspected employees from a law enforcement database, and the Backyard Burger manager identified them.
He also said the nearby Dunkin Donuts has security cameras with a view of Backyard Burgers, but he couldn’t see anything on that shop’s broken monitor when he and a Dunkin Donuts manager tried to review video evidence. The responding officers tried and failed to contact the Dunkin Donuts manager on Nov. 23, but they followed up and later obtained a disc of security footage.
Nov. 23
Canada Road/Huff N Puff Road (misdemeanor drugs/narcotics violation)
An officer was doing a routine business check of Waffle House just before 1 a.m. Nov. 23 when he noticed four black males walking from a dark vehicle toward the restaurant’s entrance. One was a juvenile dressed in white, who spotted the deputy and quickly returned to the car, took something from his pockets and stuffed it in the passenger’s side door. Then he slammed the car door and ran back to his companions, yelling, “I don’t have anything!”
The detective stopped him, and two other deputies arrived and helped to detain all four males.
Deputies identified the name of the male in all white, who then yelled, “It’s my birthday!” and “I’m grown!” His companions said he was 16 and they had taken him to a hotel party where they drank and smoked weed.
The deputy looked through their car window and saw a glass alcohol bottle on the passenger floorboard. He also saw a clear plastic bag containing a green leafy substance tucked into the passenger side door bin. The bottle was a 200ml container of Ciroc Red Berry vodka, and the bag contained 3.4 grams of marijuana.
Deputies gave misdemeanor citations to two of the friends for being minors in possession of liquor. The birthday boy got a juvenile summons for violation of curfew, being a minor in possession of liquor, and possession of a controlled substance. Officers released him to his grandmother’s custody at 2:45 a.m.
Fir Hill Drive North (misdemeanor vandalism)
A resident of Fir Hill Drive North said he was in bed around 2:15 a.m. Nov. 23 when he heard glass break at his front door.
The responding officer saw that the glass window above the door was shattered, and there were what appeared to be wet balls of newspaper in front of the door and stuck to the bricks to the right of the door. A crime scene technician took photos of the damage.
Nov. 24
Canada Road (misdemeanor shoplifting)
A clerk at an Exxon gas station (3848 Canada Road), said a black male and a white male grabbed four 18-packs of beer ($20 each) and fled northbound on Canada Road in a blue Hyundai. There were two black males waiting for them in the vehicle.
The clerk reported their license plate number and also said there was security footage but he didn’t know how to retrieve it. The theft occurred between 10 a.m. and 10:34 a.m. Nov. 24.
Brandon Way (intimidation/domestic violence)
A sister residing on the 3000 block of Brandon Way said she and her brother began arguing around 5 p.m. Nov. 24, and he threatened to hurt her when she asked him to leave. He left before officers arrived.
The sister’s boyfriend said he witnessed the threat. The responding officer observed no injuries to the sister or her boyfriend.
Nov. 27
Adagio Lane (misdemeanor vandalism)
A resident on the 5200 block of Adagio Lane reported that someone cut the wires to the exterior Christmas lights on one side of his residence while he was gone on Nov. 26. He said the vandalism happened between 6:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.
Nov. 28
Woodland Grove Lane (motor vehicle theft/passenger vehicle)
A woman reported that someone took her father’s GM Envoy from her brother-in-law’s home on the 10000 block of Woodland Grove on Nov. 28. She said her father lets her drive the SUV. She dropped off her brother-in-law at his home around 2 p.m., and then the vehicle wouldn’t start. When she returned around 11 a.m. to jump it off, it was gone.
She contacted the brother-in-law, who said it was parked at Kroger in Frayser. Her father went there but could not locate the vehicle. Now the brother-in-law will no longer answer her calls or texts, she said.
The SUV’s owner said no one has permission to drive the vehicle except for his daughter, and she said she didn’t give anyone permission to use it. She said she had been missing a set of keys for three or four days and had assumed her children misplaced them.
Her father contacted OnStar for help in locating the vehicle, and the SCSO dispatcher entered the vehicle’s information into the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) database.
Gillespie Oak Drive/Oak Seed Drive (aggravated assault/domestic violence)
Officers responded to an accident scene at Gillespie Oak Drive/Oak Seed Drive around 8 p.m. Nov. 28, where a man said his girlfriend hit him with her car. He said they began arguing at her relatives’ house elsewhere in Lakeland, and they were still arguing as she drove them away. He got out of the vehicle, and then she hit him with her car, a Gray Volkswagen PTS.
When an officer arrived, the man was bleeding from the upper right eye and complained about his hand and leg hurting. The officer smelled a strong odor of alcohol on the victim, who was somewhat intoxicated. A medical unit made the scene, but the man refused transportation. An officer took crime scene photos, and the man was taken to his apartment on the 9900 block of Spill Way Circle.
Nov. 29
Woodland Grove (theft from building)
Officers responded to a 911 disconnect/theft from a home on the 10000 block of Woodland Grove on Nov. 29 and found an open door. The owner arrived after being alerted by her security service that her house alarm had been triggered. The responding offers cleared the residence, and she found that someone had stolen her Taurus .38 revolver ($300) from a bedroom dresser drawer. She last saw it on Nov. 24.
She has cancer and has been living with relatives while undergoing chemotherapy. Her son has been living in her home with her permission, and she named him as a suspect in the theft. She said he is a convicted felon. In his most recent phone call to her, he said he’d been arrested on narcotics and theft charges and needed bail money.
She said he didn’t have a house key, but he had the garage door code and could access the house through a garage interior door.
A SCSO dispatcher entered the firearm’s serial number into NCIC.
Nov. 30
Dylan Drive (intimidation/domestic violence)
An officer responded on Nov. 30 to a call on the 9900 block of Dylan Drive, where a man threatened to kill his grandmother when he didn’t get the TV remote.
The man had been drinking and was at his mother’s house, watching TV with the family. He asked for the remote control. When he didn’t get it, he pulled his mother onto the porch and said he would kill his grandmother. He held a revolver, opened it to show that it was loaded and left the home. The incident happened between 5:45 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.
