MUG SHOTS

The following were taken from actual incident reports filed last week by the City of Charleston Police Department. These are not convictions and the names of businesses, complainants, and suspects have been left off to protect the innocent. All suspects are  innocent until proven guilty, of course.
November 20 |Robbery, knife
A woman told police that a man confronted her with a knife as she was walking through the parking lot of a Sam Rittenberg Boulevard shopping center. The woman said she was able to drop her belongings and back away from the man, who took her purse and cellphone and fled.
November 21 | Robbery, firearmA man working on a construction site along Staffordshire Drive reported being “pistol whipped.” The man said he was working on a house when an unknown man wearing a hooded sweatshirt approached him and pointed a gun at him and demanded his wallet. When the man refused, an altercation ensued in which he claimed to have been hit on the back of the neck at the base of the skull. During the struggle, the pistol went off, harmlessly firing a single round into the ground, whereupon the alleged robber ran off into the woods.
November 21 | Flim flam
A Skyview Drive man told police he’d sent $2,000 to a caller posing as an IRS agent. The man said he’d received a call saying he was nearly $4,000 in arrears to the federal agency, but that he could transfer the money via “Greendot MoneyPak” prepaid cards. He went to a local pharmacy and purchased four, $500 cards and transferred the money to the caller. Later, the man felt suspicious and called a local IRS office, which confirmed that no one had called him from their office and that he should contact the police.
November 21 | General information
A Savannah Highway fast food manager contacted police to ask that one of his former employees be arrested for allegedly stealing more than $400 in charity funds. The manager claimed to have video proof that the employee had pocketed cash tendered in exchange for fund-raising gift certificates, and then later voided the transaction so the end-of-day books would appear balanced.
November 24| Flim flam
A Tripe Street man reported that a caller posing as a bank officer had said he had qualified for a loan, but that he would have to transfer the bank more than $200 to prove he was a good risk. Later, the man transferred to the caller a $100 prepaid card. The caller said he’d been turned down because he’d only put up $100. But when the man checked on the card’s balance, it was zero.
November 24 | Criminal domestic violence, aggravated, with a knife
Police responded to a call from a woman at a Sam Rittenberg store who claimed her boyfriend had earlier threatened her with a knife at their apartment. The woman said that back at the apartment, the two of them had gotten into a heated verbal argument over a broken toilet that escalated to threats of violence and her boyfriend threatening her with a knife. The woman claimed her boyfriend had said he was “tired of you nagging and bitching … I’m going to just slit your throat … Before today is over I am going to kill you.” She claimed after she threatened to call out for help, he threatened to “slice you up into little pieces.”
November 24 | Simple assault
Police responded to a St. Andrews Boulevard car wash where a woman claimed her boyfriend, who is also her co-worker there, had earlier choked her and threatened her safety if she didn’t drop an already existing assault charge.
November 24 | Criminal domestic violence, simple assault
An Orange Grove Shore Road wife claimed her husband had grabbed her by the neck and pushed her head into their bed, after she agreed with a statement another woman made on a pre-recorded edition of Oprah. The wife claimed to have said, “I’m going to start her life over again, too,” to which her husband responded that she should “go ahead and start her new damn life.” The wife said the two of them had been having marital problems for the past five years. The wife said she then told her husband to “shut up, you punk ass [expletive],” to which he dared her to call him a “punk ass [expletive] again.” When the wife called him the name again, the husband shoved her head into the bed. When police arrived, the husband corroborated much of his wife’s story, but denied choking her. He also confirmed slapping the phone out of her hand when she cursed him while attempting to call the police.