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.
June 10 | Sexual exposure
Police arrested a man near an Ashley River Road convenience store for exposing his genitals and spinning them at a clerk like a “helicopter” inside the store. The man told police, “Yeah, I was at the store and I know I’m not supposed to be there,” and that the clerk wouldn’t give him a cigarette. The clerk said the man had asked him, “What are you looking at? I’ll give you something to look at.”
June 10 | All other larceny
A Windermere Boulevard woman told police that the day after animal services investigated her that someone had stolen her two dogs. When she returned home, she found the backyard gate open and the dogs missing, one of which had been tied up. During the interview, another woman was seen walking up to the house with the dogs on leash. The woman identified herself as the source of the complaint that brought animal services, but denied stealing the dogs. She said she saw the dogs tied up outside the nearby library, and that she knew who had taken the dogs.
June 10 | Scam
A Brennon Street woman said she accidentally mailed a $10,000 check to a man who claimed she had to pay the amount to access the $8.5 million she had won in a sweepstakes. The woman said she had placed the check in an envelope, but was waiting to have her winnings confirmed before sending it. But she said she ended up placing a stamp on the envelope and sending it anyway.
June 10 | Harassing |telephone calls
Employees at a West Ashley hospital told police that an apparently inebriated man had repeatedly called and left threatening messages. The man had been asking for information for a friend of his who had died at the hospital the week before, but kept giving the wrong name of the patient. When police arrived at the man’s home, they decided he needed to by evaluated, but had to take him to a downtown hospital, because he had since been put on no trespass at the first hospital.
June 11 | Drugs violation
An officer pulled over a man speeding on Sam Rittenberg and noticed a smell of recently burned marijuana. The officer asked the driver if he had anything illegal in the car, like drugs, guns, or “currency of ten grand?” The man said there wasn’t, but a subsequent search of the car turned up close to $800 worth of cocaine. When the driver got out of the car, police spotted marijuana “shavings” on his pants and green leafy material on his teeth. A woman riding in the car with him said the driver had eaten a “blunt” before pulling over for police, and then called his mother.
June 11 | Larceny by swindle
A Dogwood Road woman told police that she had been swindled out of $1,000 in prepaid cash cards. The woman had been attempting to buy a used SUV from a person she believed to be in the Air Force. The “seller” said to send her four $500 prepaid cash cards and she would ship the SUV via Air Force “transport.” When the woman went online to check out the progress of the transaction, the website had shut down the account due suspicion of fraud. The website informed her half the money was already claimed.
June 11 | Simple assault
Two brothers in their late-80s complained to police that they had been “constantly abused” by their grandson, who had been their live-in caretaker. They claimed he locked them in their rooms for hours on end, and sometimes forced them to sit in chairs against their will. They said they did not share this information with a DSS agent recently because the grandson was present. The grandson has moved out, but they said they would press charges if he comes back.
June 11 | Burglary
A Pinckney Park resident returned home to find the back door open and a bank bag containing $500 cash missing from the top of a bookshelf. Police confiscated an orange bicycle found on the scene.