Excerpts from police calls are a regular feature in all nine Bee Group Newspapers. Some of the more unusual reports from 2001 are reprinted here. Each is an actual listing from a town police blotter.
Illustrations by Robert Malloy

• A Lancaster teen was charged with petit larceny after he was caught attempting to steal two bottles of beer in his pants in the 4000 block of Broadway.
• A 40-foot extension ladder, scrap storm doors and scrap radiators were stolen from a junkyard on Genesee Street.

• A motorist left a gas station on Transit Road without paying for approximately $4 in gasoline. The motorist left his driver’s license with the clerk and left, saying he would return to pay, but never did, police said.

• Numerous packages of sheets and blankets were reported stolen in the 2000 block of George Urban Boulevard.

• Two headlight covers were reportedly stolen from a vehicle on Transit Road.

• Officers spotted a vehicle driving on the wrong side of the median on Sheridan Drive.

• A Dellwood Avenue resident called police because it sounded like someone was tearing apart the basement. Nothing was disturbed.

• A suspicious person with a vehicle was reported at West Herr Dodge. After a brief investigation by police, it was determined that the subject was just car shopping.

• A Midway resident reported a “suspicious looking” fox in a field behind their home. The resident worried that it might chasing rabbits.

• A patient at an Orchard Park dentist’s office reportedly was slapped twice while in the dentist chair on Lake Avenue.

• A mattress caused a road obstruction on Route 20.

• In a sub shop on Main Street, a grown man was throwing food and “being disrespectful.”

• An Allenhurst Road resident reported hearing a stomping noise in the backyard. Police found that a gutter had fallen off the house.

• A wolf was feeding off of a dead deer on Cottonwood Drive.

• A white Toyota was seen driving westbound from Youngs Road on Sheridan Drive with the driver’s hood reported to be up.

• Officers charged a West Seneca resident with driving with a suspended or revoked registration because the plates were suspended four days earlier due to an insurance lapse.

• A Camelot Drive resident who reported the water level was going down in his swimming pool found a small hole in the back of the pool wall. The pool cover was also damaged by ice and the dip in the water level, causing a total of $1,350 in damages.

• Someone wrote “OP rules” on a doorway at East Aurora High School.

• A Delaware Avenue resident called police because a note had been slid under the door and was afraid to pick it up. It was a note and money that a neighbor owed the resident.

• Police responded to an alarm of fire. The alarm was set off by an air freshener.

• Approximately $50 was reportedly stolen by a “quick change artist” on Harlem road in Cheektowaga.

• A woman allegedly stole a vacuum cleaner from a French Road, Cheektowaga, store.

• A Cheektowaga woman was charged with petit larceny after allegedly stealing cold medicine and a package of micro cassettes on Dick Road.

• Three propane tanks were stolen from camper trailers in the 5000 block of Transit Road.

• A women’s shirt, a gallon of windshield washer fluid, two quarts of oil and a Backstreet Boys CD were stolen from a vehicle in Amherst.

• Two speakers and a travel clock radio were reportedly stolen from a vehicle on Heritage Drive.

• A worker dispute involving a former employee putting a potato in the tailpipe of a car belonging to a Wales Center woman was reported on Route 20A.

• Suspicious footprints leading to a garage on Sycamore Street were reported to authorities. Nothing was missing.

• Missing bedding was reported at a local hotel.

• A pop machine was tampered with in Clarence.

• Vehicles running stop signs were reported.

• A concrete duck was taken from Idlewood Drive.

• Seven pairs of underpants were taken from the laundry on Raintree Island.

• A portable police radio was stolen on Transit Road. Amherst police later located a van with the six people suspected of taking it.

• Employees of an Orchard Park Road supermarket stopped a customer attempting to shoplift frozen shrimp.

• Two sticks were placed on the hood of a vehicle and a rock was thrown at it, causing a small dent below the driver’s side window on Biscayne Drive.

• A Lancaster man reportedly tried to steal a pair of jeans from a store on Broadway by trying them on and leaving the store. When stopped by the store owner, the suspect reportedly left the pants behind and fled the store. He later called and told the owner he wanted to “make good on the pants,” and when he returned, police were waiting, and charged him with petit larceny.

• Two vending machines, which had been reported stolen, were found in a home on Donna Lea.

• A sump pump cover was reportedly stolen in the 3000 block of Walden Avenue.

• A Lancaster teen was charged with petit larceny after he was allegedly caught stealing a roll of film in the 5000 block of Broadway. He was later turned over to his mother.

• A picnic table bench was used to break a windshield on George Urban Boulevard.

• A set of floor mats and a hand-held vacuum cleaner were stolen on Broadway.

• An eight-foot tall sign shaped like an ice cream cone was stolen in the 5000 block of Transit Road.

• An old claw foot tub that had been put in the front of a yard was taken on Elm Place.

• Several 2x4s with nails were stolen on Cowing Street.

• A license plate was stolen from a car in the 3000 block of Walden Avenue last Tuesday.

• Officers charged a West Seneca woman with disorderly conduct after she began to loudly swear at them when asked to leave the West Seneca Town Hall area. They had been called to the parking lot to make her move her SUV, which was intentionally blocking her ex-boyfriend’s vehicle.

• Overnight, the “welcome” flag was allegedly stolen from apartments on Orchard Park Road.

• An employee of Rose Bowl Lanes, Harlem Road, reported two customers left without paying for $25.20 in games played.

• The manager of a Ridge Road discount store reported holes were punched in a number of laundry detergent containers and syrup bottles, and the liquid that leaked from the containers damaged nearby cereal boxes. The culprits also squirted mustard on some toys.

• West Seneca police charged a Buffalo man with disorderly conduct after the man, when asked to leave a Harlem Road residence at 6:30 a.m., swore at the officer and used “a hand sign to help in the understanding of his verbalization.”

• A customer at an Orchard Park Road supermarket was charged with petit larceny after an employee observed her switching the price tags on lobster tails and steak.

• Foaming brushes were reported stolen from two bays at a North America Drive car wash.

• A Depew teen, who had been throwing rocks at a loose dog, according to police, accidentally threw a rock at a vehicle, damaging a window.

• A physical harassment was reported in the 4000 block of Transit Road. The victim told police the suspect had two books and a pair of ballerina shoes that he refused to return.

• A ladder was reportedly stolen on Terrace Boulevard.

• A vehicle reportedly struck a utility pole and an “Adopt a Highway” sign at Walden Avenue and Ransom Road.

• A Lancaster man was charged with petit larceny for allegedly attempting to steal a $3.29 pack of heartburn pills.

• An injured woodchuck was reported on Big Tree Road.

• Youths reportedly shot a goose with paint balls on Lakewood Drive.

• An aluminum ladder reportedly caused a road hazard on Route 219.

• A St. John’s Avenue resident returned home to find all the lights on. A television and stereo were missing.

• Two half-gallons of ice cream were taken from a Highland Avenue address.

• A rear door was stolen from a van on Military Road.

• A caller reported a white car that had gone through a red light at Millersport Highway and North Forest Road.

• On Paradise Road, a resident reported a number of cars playing loud music in a nearby parking lot. No cars were found to have been playing music when police arrived.

• Five kids were reported to be shooting off fireworks on Labelle Terrace.

• A driver on Maple Road reported that another motorist had spit on her car for driving at the posted speed limit.

• Ten cases of beer were reported stolen from a store on Harlem Road in Cheektowaga.

• A motorist traveling on Ellicott Road complained of an “irrational” deer.

• A person was throwing bagels at customers visiting a restaurant on North Buffalo Road.

• A man was reportedly squirting people with a squirt gun from the bed of a truck on Abbott Road.

• At 4:05 a.m., officers met with a driver on Potters Road whose car had been hit by a hard object, damaging the hood, while she was driving near the Route 90 overpass. Egg shells were found nearby.

• Three painted turtles were taken from a plastic pond on Ransom Road overnight Saturday.

• Four plants were stolen from a Genesee Street address.

• A female attempted to steal 65 cents worth of candy from a store in the 2000 block of George Urban Boulevard. She allegedly placed an ice cream and a coffee on the counter, and when the clerk asked if she had the candy, the female allegedly took it out of her pocket, placed it on the counter and ran out of the store.

• A Lancaster man was charged with driving while intoxicated and endangering the welfare of a child on Cemetery Road. Police said the man had his 2-year-old son with him in the vehicle when he was stopped.

• A man threw a shoe near a woman’s head during an argument over license plates for a vehicle on Pearl Street Saturday.

• A Buffalo man was charged with petit larceny after he was caught trying to steal a can of lice treatment, a can of car wash, two cans of oil treatment, a tube of toothpaste and a razor from a Walden Avenue store.

• A Depew man was charged with petit larceny after attempting to steal a package of salami from a Lancaster store.

• A bottle of hair gel was stolen from a Transit Road business.

• Approximately $10 was stolen from a charity box for the Ronald McDonald House in the 5000 block of Broadway.

• A $5 bill and a $2 bill were reportedly stolen during a burglary on Richmond Avenue last Tuesday.

• A pumpkin was thrown at the driver’s side mirror of a vehicle on Penora Street.

• Two sets of manger scenes were stolen in the 6000 block of Transit Road.

• A wallet and watch were taken from Dellwood Road.

• A bird was reported in a house on LaSalle Avenue.

• Officers were called to West Girard Boulevard for a person who appeared to be sick. The person was having trouble with a contact lens.

• Torn pieces of cheese were placed on a vehicle on Commodore Avenue.

• An archery arrow was found in a roof on Fairlane Road.

• Two customers were fighting at a Sheridan Drive restaurant.

• A child locked his mother out of their vehicle on Youngs Road.

• A resident reported that a semi-truck on Third Avenue was too loud.

• A male was reported sleeping on a sidewalk in front of Kaufmann’s at the Walden Galleria. He awoke to find his wallet missing.

• A female found a bag of prescription medication in the front bushes at her Toelsin Road residence. She brought the medication to the Cheektowaga Police Department.

• Officers charged a driver on Route 400 with inappropriate use of a signal after he tried to move his vehicle against their advice. He was supposed to be waiting for a tow truck after removing a flat tire from his car even though he didn’t have a spare.

• A Lakeside Drive resident reported three holes were cut in his children’s pool, change was stolen from his wife’s vehicle and potted plants were moved from his neighbor’s yard to his yard between 6-7:15 a.m.

• A raccoon was stuck in a tree on the 5000 block of Powers Road.

• Cows were on the loose in a backyard on Newton Road.

• Loud music was reported on Crosby Avenue.

• A dog was reported barking on Palmer Avenue.

• Officers were called about a loud party on Washington Avenue.

• Someone took a flower pot worth $25 from a store on Transit Road.

• A large snake with fangs was reported next to an Ava Lane residence. Upon investigation, it was found to be a garden snake that had just eaten a frog.

• Two men wearing white T-shirts were reportedly looking at a garage on Londonderry Lane.

• A gold glass globe lawn ornament was reportedly stolen on Lake Avenue.

• A birdbath, a pedestal and a glass ornamental ball were reportedly stolen from a lawn on Stony Road.

• A Lancaster woman was charged with petit larceny after allegedly putting two tomatoes, several packages of meat, three tabloid magazines and a tube of cold sore gel in her purse at a store on Transit Road.

• A Lancaster teen was charged with criminal mischief after she allegedly stuck a patio umbrella into the drywall of a garage on Riemers Avenue.

• A bullet was shot through the siding of a home on Leonard Drive last Thursday. Police said the bullet shattered a glass aquarium containing a four and-a-half foot California king snake, which was able to escape. The bullet reportedly came from a neighbor shooting a gun on private property in his backyard, police said.