Mug Shots

The following were taken from actual incident reports filed last week by the City of Charleston’s 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.
May 28
Drunkenness
Police found an apparently inebriated man dressed in black at night standing in the middle of St. Andrews Boulevard attempting to hitchhike. The man said he was headed to James Island. Arrested for public intoxication, the man stated on the ride to jail, “ Aw, man, I’m so [expletive] high … “
May 28
Pocket picking
A clerk at an Ashley River Road gas station called police when a man tried to purchase $100 in cigarettes with a credit card with someone else’s name on it. When police questioned the man, he said it was his sister’s card. The officer asked the man what was his sister’s first name. The man answered correctly, but botched the last name, and was barred from the store. Police tracked down the card’s rightful owner, who reported having their pocket picked earlier at a nearby post office by a man that fit the description of the man at the gas station.
May 28
Drug equipment violation
A man called police to come to a Sam Rittenberg Boulevard shopping center parking lot to help him recover a car stolen from him. The man had been tracking the car’s whereabouts via a GPS system. While processing and searching the parked car, an officer found a suspicious black duffel bag in the trunk. The officer said the duffel had a distinct smell and contained several items, like a clear plastic bottle containing a yellow substance and “small black specks,” that led him to believe it was a nearly-operational, mobile methamphetamine lab.
May 29
Injured party
A counselor at an Ashley River Road psychiatric office that specializes in the treatment of addiction, told police that a client had made threats about hurting herself. The counselor told police the client “wants to steal money, have sex with a bunch of guys and then go to a pharmacy and shoot a pharmacist because she hates them.” The patient soon agreed to be admitted into a local psychiatric hospital.
May 29
Traffic arrest
Police stopped a vehicle with expired tags near the Savannah Highway/St. Andrews Boulevard ramp. Immediately, the driver told the officer that he didn’t have a license, or registration, or insurance. He also told them he hadn’t paid car taxes or insurance premiums. The officer also discovered the tags on the vehicle had been suspended, and there was an active warrant of the driver’s arrest on a gambling charge. The driver told the officer he also had a hunting rifle, replete with scope, in the vehicle.
May 29
Criminal domestic violence
A woman living in a West Ashley apartment complex told police that her boyfriend, the father of their three children, had cut her during an argument. The woman said she and her boyfriend had earlier had a series of verbal disputes that escalated when the boyfriend allegedly struck her in the chin with a “glass decorative ornament.” In an attempt to protect her self, the woman retrieved a knife from the kitchen, and the two wrestled over it, resulting in a cut to her arm. The woman claimed her boyfriend, having wrested the knife away from her, went into the bedroom and threw a television on the ground, breaking it. The woman said he’d been arrested for criminal domestic violence in the past. Officers found the man still had a pending CDV warrant.
May 29
Vandalism
A resident at an Ashley River Road apartment complex told police that a man driving a dark-colored pickup with a toolbox drove between buildings, nearly hitting a young girl. The truck then apparently drove along the sidewalk, damaging bushes.
May 29
Forgery
Police arrested a woman at a Sam Rittenberg department store for attempting to purchase $550 of gift cards with counterfeit money. The woman presented a cashier with five fake $100 bills, all with identical serial numbers, as well as a $50 bill.