The Shelby County Sheriff’s Office (SCSO) handled the following incidents in Arlington during the first half of March. For the remainder of March’s incidents, see next week’s issue.
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 2
Indian Walk Lane (theft)
A woman reported on March 2 that her 10-year-old Pomeranian had been missing since Feb. 25. The dog was in her back yard on the 4900 block of Indian Walk Lane while she went to dinner, and the gate was closed when she left at 5 p.m. and when she returned around 9 p.m. The responding deputy found no holes in or under the fence.
A witness reported seeing a juvenile neighbor walking the dog behind his house around 5 p.m., so deputies went to the juvenile’s house, where they heard barking. A male youth answered the door and told deputies that, yes, he had a dog.
Deputies sent him into the house to get his mother, and they heard himtelling her that the deputies wanted to see his dog. The woman yelled from the back of the house that she had to get dressed. The barking stopped.
The woman came to the door several minutes later, seeming nervous, denying there was a dog in the house and refusing to let deputies in. She said she was on a short break from work and had to leave.
Several minutes later deputies saw her drive north on Indian Walk Lane, but she returned about 10 minutes later. Several more minutes passed before the deputies saw a Pomeranian running toward them. He was coming from the direction the woman had just driven.
The original owner retrieved and identified the dog as hers, and she said it had been cleaned and was wearing a new collar.
The witness said the collar appeared to be the same one the dog was wearing when the juvenile neighbor was walking the animal.
March 7
Maple Landing Drive (intimidation)
A woman who lives on the 5300 block of Maple Landing Drive reported March 7 that a former coworker got upset when she wouldn’t date him. His harassment started when she stopped talking to him, she said, and she felt threatened and worried about what he might do.
She said he called continually and left harassing voice mails, sent harassing text messages, threatened multiple times to kill her and himself, drove to her home and sat outside for hours, and tailgated her while she was driving home late on March 6, even jerking his steering wheel toward her vehicle as if he were trying to run her off the road.
The victim showed officers videos she said the man sent. One showed him loading his shotgun and saying, “Even my dog knows I’m done.”
Another video showed himself holding a rose and tearing the petals off, throwing them toward the camera with a blank stare.
The suspect drives a black Chevrolet Silverado with a toolbox in the truck bed.
March 8
Airline Road (misdemeanor drugs/narcotics violation)
The Arlington High School principal advised a responding officer that a student had a marijuana joint (a “roach”) in her possession. The student admitted getting it from another student.
She removed a red Skittles bag out of her backpack with a roach inside it that smelled strongly of marijuana and later tested positive at a weight of 0.01 gram. The student received a juvenile summons for simple possession of marijuana and was suspended for 180 school days.
U.S. 70 (intimidation)
An enraged customer at Fred’s (11888 U.S. 70) alarmed the pharmacist enough to call the SCSO just after 6 p.m. March 8.
The suspect was in the store between 5:30 p.m. and 5:45 p.m. to have a prescription filled. The pharmacist said the woman was furious when told her medications could not be filled because of errors on the prescription.
The customer reportedly said, “This is [why] crazy people go crazy and start shooting up places, and I could do it.”
The pharmacist said she feared the woman’s reaction and possible follow-through with the threats because of her past violent behavior in the store. The suspect was not on the scene when deputies arrived, and there were no injuries during the incident.
March 9
Airline Road (simple assault)
Two male students got into a fight during gym class at Arlington High School (5475 Airline Road) on March 9. Victim 1 said several students behind him threw Sharpie pens at him during class, so he confronted one of them.
Victim 2 said Victim 1 walked up, accused him, swore at him and began arguing. So the two fought. A witness confirmed both accounts.
Each of the youths received a juvenile summons for fighting and a suspension from school.
Video footage showed officers that Victim 1 spoke to Victim 2, who stood up and struck Victim 1 in the face.
Longleaf Oak Trail (residential burglary)
Someone kicked in the rear door of a home on the 12200 block of Longleaf Oak Trail and burglarized it between 6:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. March 9. The resident returned to find his front door’s deadbolt unlocked. A crime scene officer was unable to lift latent fingerprints at the scene.
Items stolen included a Sony PS4 ($400) and Apple iPad Air ($200). The serial numbers for both items were entered into the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) database.
March 11
Hillary Cove (individual robbery)
A man who solicited sex via text messages with a stranger on a Memphis Craigslist ad ended up with an entirely different spark for his afternoon.
The victim said the woman came to his home on the 11900 block of Hillary Cove just before noon March 11. She asked how he would pay her, and he said he had no intention of paying.
She asked to see his electronics, and he showed her an array of stolen property: An Acer laptop, Nintendo Gameboy, Nintendo game, AMC DVD, Logitech controller and Call of Duty video camera. She asked if he had a bag to put it in, and he showed her a duffel bag.
She then brandished a pink Taser-like weapon and made it spark, he said. She stuffed all the property into the bag and left in a Jeep. No injuries were reported.
Officers noted that the suspect sent the man a recent photo of herself during the text exchange.
Milton Wilson Boulevard (intimidation/ domestic violence)
Officers responded to a call on the 6300 block of Milton Wilson Boulevard just before midnight March 11. A suspect was reported as intoxicated at his home, damaging items and showing violent tendencies.
Responding officers were advised that the suspect had been fired from the Memphis Police Department, his wife left him about two weeks ago, and he’d said any law enforcement approaching the property would be engaged in gunfire.
The man’s mother-in-law said that the suspect came home already intoxicated, swearing and breaking things. She said he moved and partially destroyed an upright piano, numerous vases and flowers, and he moved some items from inside the house to the curb.
She thought at one point he was going to throw a vase at her, but he threw it down instead, apologized and then became irate again. His mother heard the ruckus and came downstairs to try talking with him. He renewed his cursing and began making non-specific threats, his mother-in-law said.
Both women refused transportation to another location.
March 13
Airline Road (misdemeanor drugs/narcotics violation)
A concerned citizen flagged down an officer outside ATC Fitness (6050 Airline Road) at 5:45 p.m. March 13 about possible drug activity. The man, an off-duty federal police officer, saw two white male suspects in a gray Chevy Tahoe, parked on the north side of the business.
The responding officer smelled the strong odor of marijuana coming from the vehicle when he walked up to the vehicle’s passenger window.
The driver admitted to having marijuana and consented to a vehicle search. Officers found drugs where he directed, inside a calculator in his backpack in the rear seat and also in the pocket behind the front passenger seat and center console. Officers recovered one blunt (1.3 grams), a baggie of green leafy substance (0.3 gram) and a glass jar of the same (1.2 grams). All later tested positive as marijuana.
The driver received a misdemeanor citation for possession of a controlled substance, and the passenger received a juvenile summons for the same charge.
March 15
Airline Road (simple assault)
Two football players clashed in the locker room at Arlington High School during football practice around 2:30 p.m. March 14, as reported by an assistant principal the next morning.
A witness saw the suspect ask the victim if he wanted to fight inside or take it outside, and then the suspect punched the victim in the mouth.
The victim said he had showed an inappropriate photo of the suspect’s girlfriend to other students, angering the suspect.
The suspect told the same story, admitted striking the victim and received a juvenile summons for assault. The school notified both students’ parents of the incident.
