Best of the Blotter 2006

Excerpts from police calls are a regular feature in all nine Bee Group Newspapers. Some of the more unusual reports from 2005 are reprinted here. Each is an actual listing from a town police blotter.

Illustrations by Robert Malloy

• Depew police responded to a Walden Avenue location to take custody of a woman apprehended by Cheektowaga police. A search turned up an unused state inspection sticker in her bra.
• An Orchard Park resident reported someone dumped a quantity of Ramen noodles into their hot tub while it was running.
• A driver from a Lancaster trucking company noticed 14 cases plus two 32-ounce jars of pickles were missing, totaling 170 jars in all. The company's shipping supervisor was reportedly evasive when questioned by police, but did state he saw "a couple of people eating pickles" when he reported for his shift.
• The loss-prevention officer at a Transit Road supermarket reported that a 53-year-old man placed some items, including two air fresheners and a copy of the "Dog Whisperer" video, in his pants and attempted to leave the store without paying.
• While a 19-year-old Orchard Park man was being incarcerated, he pulled a sign off a door and broke it. He was charged with criminal mischief.
• A woman called police because she said she had a headache and was going to take several bottles of aspirin to settle her down. Upon police arrival, officers observed her shoveling Smarties candies into her mouth.

• A South Glidden Street resident reported that a man who had just been released from jail stole her food and her Valium.
• Depew police dispatch received numerous calls of a naked woman running through the neighborhood of Terrace Boulevard and Penora Street. Officers located the woman and trapped her on the front porch of a nearby residence after she ran from them.
• Menacing was reported on Kenville Road when a woman in her 30s, dressed in all red clothing, was chasing people in the street with a fork.
• A Broadway, Lancaster, man reported finding a black duffel bag in his yard, containing eight black binders full of various sports cards and an empty package from a "KISS" figurine.
• A 20-year-old woman was locked out of a Euclid Avenue house by her 14-year-old brother, who was "just being a punk."
• A Genesee Street gas station employee reported a threat had been made by a male after the clerk refused to accept pennies for a gas sale.
• A police officer responded to a complaint of a suspicious person on Seneca Street. The officer stopped to question an individual, who refused to answer questions and had no identification on him. The suspect was placed under arrest but began talking about Satan, "the beast" and Leviathan, and started reciting strange chants. He told the officer, "Oh yeah, buddy, you messed with the wrong guy."
• Amherst Museum officials reported catching a wild cat that was living in one of the buildings.
• A Bramblewood Lane resident reported that a turkey could not seem to find its way out of a neighbor's back yard, which is completely fenced with a swimming pool. The resident said the turkey was "crazily walking back and forth."
• Someone removed the glass panel from the rear door to a tavern in West Seneca, entered the bar and stole three bottles of vodka and 18 bottles of beer. One bottle of vodka and three bottles of Michelob Ultra were found in the parking lot. The cash register was untouched.
• A man attempted to steal 15 cans of Enfamil formula from a convenience store on Southwestern Boulevard.
• Police aided a confused adult on Walden Avenue who stated that the "eye in the sky" was watching her.
• An unknown suspect removed three decorative lollipops from a front yard on St. Jude Drive.
• Criminal mischief was reported on County Road; a car was damaged by youths throwing apples.

• A Lamarck Drive resident found a counterfeit $10 bill in the front yard.
• A Meadow Place resident reported that the front door had been tampered with. Police reported that it was just an old door that was falling apart.
• A Sawyer Avenue man reported that someone had poured a liquid with white particles into his vehicle's gas tank, damaging the lines, filters and engine. When he received the $1,376 repair bill, the man said the receipt stated the liquid could not be identified, but was "definitely not gasoline."
• A Harlan Street woman reported telling a housemate he could not use the phone, so he reportedly went outside and ripped the phone wires off the side of the house.
• Police responded to a Forestview Drive residence for a report of a snow blower on fire.
• A motorist, stopped on Orchard Park Road for failure to stay in lane, was charged with DWI. The subject stated his knee was sore from moving furniture.
• Police responded to a parking lot on Sheridan Drive because of two youths fighting over a fast food order. One of the boys apparently had stolen the other's sweet-n-sour sauce.
• A suspect was observed taking two bags of frozen shrimp and placing them inside his coat at the Tops market on Harlem Road.
• An Elma man was charged with theft, resisting arrest and second-degree obstruction of governmental administration after a store owner reported the man stole a 30-pack of beer and fled the scene on a go-kart.
• A CSX train crashed through a garage door at a station on George Urban Boulevard. The engine stopped when it struck train cars inside the building. The conductor said a problem with the air pressure on the engine caused the brakes to fail.
• A Marine Drive tenant reportedly threatened to get the landlord "ghetto style."
• A 16-year-old Lackawanna female was charged with petit larceny after allegedly stealing jogging pants and two pairs of sunglasses worth an estimated $75 from a department store.
• A patrol was performing a routine traffic stop on Harlem Road when a man rode his bike past the officer and yelled at him. The officer followed the bicyclist and found that he was highly intoxicated. The officer located a pipe with marijuana residue in the man's right front pocket and a bag with marijuana in his left front pocket.
• Police responded to a report of a motor vehicle accident on Tampa Drive. The driver did not appear to understand the police officer's questions. When asked what had happened, the driver said, "She pulled out in front of me." However, the driver had struck a parked car.
• An Evans woman told police that she believed her child may have dropped her wallet while they were at Target in Lancaster. The credit card was used a short time later at a plaza in West Seneca.
• A Lancaster resident reported that someone was leaving flowers by the front door but no notes or other identifying information.
• A prowler was reported trying to break into a Greiner Road business. It was an employee coming to work.
• A Springville Avenue resident reported that a motorist, impatient to leave, drove over the complainant's lawn, striking his cat.
• A Hillcrest Drive resident reported that when she went to enter her vehicle, she noticed a strange man sleeping in the back seat. She screamed, and the suspect woke up and ran away.

• A 43-year-old Depew woman reported that her 41-year-old husband hit her with a hot dog during an argument.
• Lancaster police notified the Village Department of Public Works of two dead skunks, one on Lake Avenue and one on Aurora Street.
• A patrol drove past a vehicle with heavy damage and a light out on Clinton Street. When the officer activated his lights, the vehicle pulled onto the lawn in front of a Clinton Street residence. The driver of the suspect vehicle put his car in reverse and struck the patrol car. He said he drank four Coors Light beers for his birthday. When performing field sobriety tests, the suspect asked if he could remove his glass eye to retry the one-leg stand. The officer allowed him to remove his artificial eye, but he failed the test again and was placed under arrest.
• A woman reported that she had been receiving strange phone calls almost daily in which an unknown caller whispers, "Can I clean your house?"
• Police investigated a suspicious vehicle parked in a no parking zone on Seufert Road and charged a 22-year-old Arizona man with unlawful possession of marijuana, drinking alcohol on a vehicle and a parking violation. He was later charged with criminal mischief after ripping a cord out of the wall at the police station.
• Police responded to a report of a white male standing in front of a supermarket on Orchard Park Road asking people for money. He told the officer he wanted to go see his girlfriend in Canada and was running out of gas.
• An alarm was reported on Clarence Center Road. It was accidental by the cleaning crew.
• A 41-year-old man reported that "some kid" hit him in the head with a beer bottle at a Depew bar.
• Several pairs of women's undergarments were found glued to the hood of a person's car near Brompton Road. It turned out that someone was playing a prank on a friend.
• Youths attempted to purchase an energy drink with alcohol in it at a Town of Tonawanda convenience store. They told the clerk they didn't know it had alcohol in it. They tried to purchase the substance again several hours later.
• Police advised two girls walking on a ramp for Interstate-290. They told police they are new University at Buffalo students walking back to campus and thought they were on Maple Road.
• The patrol stopped a vehicle for crossing over the double yellow lines on Union Road. The driver appeared to be nervous and had bloodshot eyes. When asked if he had taken any drugs, the suspect replied, "I've taken all sorts of drugs, but nothing in the last couple months."
• A man reported that someone had driven an all-terrain vehicle through his Erie Street property, destroying his soybean crop.
• A patrol observed a vehicle traveling at 53 mph in a 35 mph-zone on Berg Road. The officer pulled over the vehicle and determined the suspect vehicle had an odor of alcohol on his breath and bloodshot, watery eyes. After searching for his registration for several minutes, he turned and asked the officer, "What did you need?"
• A man in the Sheridan Parkside neighborhood had said that he was chased by another man with a Louisville Slugger baseball bat.
• A man with a clipboard, looking into a manhole on Main Street, was considered suspicious. He was from National Grid.
• Someone entered an unlocked garage on Fawn Trail and stole a red and black tool box, socket set, assorted hand tools, assorted frozen food, three cases of soft drink, two gas cans and six jugs of windshield washer fluid.
• A bumper was stolen from a 1986 Ford Mustang while it was parked in a Town of Tonawanda neighborhood.
• A security guard at a Depew grocery store reported that a man grabbed a 12-pack of beer, some powdered drink mix, a can of sardines and a box of condoms and ran out the door.
• Larceny was reported on Transit Road when a man tried to take a case of beer, meat and seafood that was dropped in the parking lot.
• A neighbor dispute was reported on Surrey Run when a woman was refusing to return balls that had landed in her yard when the kids next door were playing.

• A vehicle was damaged after a 2 1/2-inch hose fell off a fire truck that was responding to a call of smoke at a house on Independence Drive.
• A caller reported two juveniles on low-rider bikes overturning picnic tables and garbage cans in the Clarence Center Elementary School playground.
• A Hemlock Drive resident reported that someone stole two 12-packs and one six-pack of beer, and a 12-pack of pop from the refrigerator in his garage.
• A 28-year-old Orchard Park man was arrested for driving while intoxicated after witnesses at the McDonald's restaurant on Orchard Park Road told police they witnessed him drive over a curb and into a flower bed.
• Police responded to a report of a disturbance at an Edson Street address. They arrived to find a vehicle parked on the front lawn and still running. The driver said she had received harassing phone calls from a female at the address and decided to confront her.
• Officers responded to a report of an abandoned vehicle on Route 219 near Ridge Road. The vehicle contained numerous open containers of beer. It appeared the vehicle was stuck in a small body of water off the road.
• A suspicious person was reported on Smiley Terrace. It was a magazine salesman.
• A Lackawanna man was charged with criminal mischief, harassment and trespassing after causing a disturbance at an Abbott Road bar. He was additionally charged with a second count of criminal mischief after his girlfriend reported that he smashed her cell phone.
• A driver on Niagara Falls Boulevard called police because an irate passenger in another car was punching the dashboard.
• An Acacia Drive resident complained to police that a neighbor pushed him after a dispute about lawn clippings.
• A French Road resident reported a larceny when the snakes she ordered online never arrived.
• Police responded to a report of a vehicle fleeing after a larceny at a store on Orchard Park Road. Police confiscated the stolen items and also found hypodermic syringes, two crack pipes and metal cups with heroin residue in the suspect vehicle.
• A South Lane resident told police that somebody entered their residence and stole video games, beer and clothes.
• Police charged two 15-year-old Orchard Park males with second-degree reckless endangerment and third-degree criminal mischief after they allegedly threw rocks at vehicles on South Buffalo Street.
• A suspect was stopped in traffic on Seneca Street. When approached by the patrol, the driver had a strong odor of alcoholic beverage on his breath. When asked for his license and registration, the suspect gave the officer a pizza menu, thinking it was his registration.
• Someone smashed a Pepsi vending machine on Clinton Street, but nothing was taken.
• A server from Danny's Restaurant on Abbott Road told police that two teenagers left the restaurant without paying their bill as soon as the Buffalo Sabres game ended.
• A sick raccoon was reported on Stahley Road.
• An ONSTAR alarm was reported on Main Road in Clarence, but the car could not be located.
• An employee of a Walden Avenue, secondhand goods store reported that a regular customer wheeled out a newly acquired wheelchair, valued at $400, without paying.
• Police charged a 22-year-old Winfield Avenue man with DWI after observing him swerve on School Street and strike the curb on three separate occasions, nearly striking three parked cars and driving over the curb and sidewalk.
• A police report for petit larceny was filed at Williamstowne when an electric toothbrush was reported stolen.
• Youths with pellet guns were reported on Rogers Drive. They were spoken to by police.
• A Cheektowaga woman reported she thought her neighbor's furnace was going to start a fire in the apartment.
• A Walden Avenue gas station employee reported that a man pumped gas approximately an hour ago and still hadn't paid, and the vehicle was still parked at the pumps. The report led to the arrest of the man on drug charges.
• Lynnette Court residents reported that someone entered a back window, took some beer and left the empty bottles behind.
• A hot water tank and two heaters were reportedly stolen on Wanda Avenue.
• A St. Boniface Road resident reported that her doorbell was rung, and five minutes later she went to the door and found a "no parking" sign at the doorstep.
• Unsupervised youths, approximately 16-17 years of age and dressed in Gothic clothes, were harassing a neighbor during the evening hours on Harlem Road.
• A concerned resident reported that a house on Marilyn Drive had high grass, and the garage door was open. Everything was in order; the owner's lawn mower had been broken and was being repaired that day.
• Two reportedly intoxicated males were pushing each other in a shopping cart and almost hitting vehicles at the Thruway Plaza.
• Police were called to assist U-Crest firefighters on a call at a residence of a drunken family who liked to fight with the fire department.
• Four people arguing in a cab on Walden Avenue led to one being arrested for assault.
• A neighbor dispute about cutting the grass was reported on Francis Avenue. The report also claimed the one man had a recording device on him and the property.

• A man reported that he went to get his car from a Genesee Street parking lot and lost his 13-year-old son. Reportedly the youth saw a spider, panicked, and was hiding somewhere in the lot. He was located.
• A disturbance was reported on Creekside Drive when a female locked a male out of the house and wouldn't give him the keys to the vehicle to leave. The man walked home.
• Someone reported that a mom was yelling at her son on Slate Creek Drive because the lad wouldn't eat his breakfast.
• Larceny of ice tea by three males, ages 14-16, was reported on Genesee Street.
• Deputies checked Emery Road after receiving a report that females were in the parking lot of a business, intoxicated and screaming profanities.
• An employee of a George Urban Boulevard gas station reported that she placed 20 packs of cigarettes in a brown paper bag for a customer, who then grabbed the bag without paying and ran out toward a vehicle.
• A Genesee Street hotel reported that an intoxicated female was in the lobby and was not a guest at the hotel. She was there because an airline had refused to let her board. She was returned to the airport.
• A patrol stopped a vehicle on Clinton Street because it would not dim its high-beam lights. The officer noticed the driver had slurred speech and smelled of alcohol. When the driver was asked to recite the alphabet, he could not get past the letter "n."
• A Main Street, Depew, man, after reporting the theft of his medication, asked police if it was true that if you file a police report you can get a free prescription. Officers gave the man a "stern, verbal reply" to this comment, and told him the rumor was false.
• A Sagebrush Lane woman reported that her allegedly intoxicated housemate had tried to pour hot sauce on her after a verbal argument.
• A male was wandering around an adult nightclub on Aero Drive, stalking girls and trying to get inside the building. He was picked up by a cab.
• An Alaska Street resident reported that her son had taken $70,000.
• A man walked out of a Military Road bowling alley with a full glass of beer and proceeded to walk home. Police stopped him, only to find that the glass wasn't filled with beer but a fluid of similar color.
• A Depew resident reported that four suspicious adults with children were in the area ringing doorbells. Police determined the suspects to be from a religious group.
• Two men were charged with larceny on Union Road after one put on a pair of new sneakers and left his old sneakers on the shelf.
• A male was reportedly yelling and screaming in his Randolph Avenue driveway. Police reported he actually was trying to "rap."
• A dog was found entangled in a gas pump hose behind a Wehrle Drive business; it was freed and taken to the SPCA.
• A patrol performed a routine traffic stop on Seneca Street. The driver was asked to park the vehicle and find an alternative means of transportation. The driver exited the vehicle and had walked approximately half a block down the street, when he opened a can of Budweiser and began to drink it. He also began to yell obscenities. At that point, the suspect was placed under arrest.
• Police stopped a vehicle on Clinton Street because only one headlight was functioning. A DMV check showed the vehicle had a homemade registration on the windshield.
• A 27-year-old Hamburg man was taken to Mercy Ambulatory Center after a suspect bit his ear lobe off during an altercation at a tavern on Abbott Road.
• Officers responded to a call of a hit-and-run accident on Marycrest Lane. They arrived to find one uninjured occupant in the vehicle with the keys in the ignition and engine still running. The driver said he was on his way home from a casino to go check on his child and that he had consumed three beers. There was an open container of beer on the driver's side floor.
• Someone broke the window locks of a Berg Road residence, entered the home and removed a safe. The suspect(s) then took the safe to the garage and used power tools to open it. There was nothing of value in the safe.
• A Niagara Frontier Transit Authority officer reported that he lost his wallet, containing his badge and police identification, when he left it on top of his vehicle after fueling at a Lancaster gas station.
• An Orchard Park woman told police that she discovered her purse stolen while she was at a drugstore on North Buffalo Road. The purse was later found at the Orchard Park Senior Center with $60 missing.
• A suspect attempted to steal $136 of meat and paper towels from a supermarket on Harlem Road. The assistant store manager tried to stop the shoplifter in the lot, but the suspect left the cart and fled on foot.
• An officer responded to a property damage-only accident on Indian Church Road. The suspect had an odor of alcoholic beverage on his breath but told the officer he had not been drinking. There was an open 24-ounce can of Labatt's Blue in his vehicle. The suspect said he was coming from Tops where he bought "medication."
• A Thomas Jefferson Lane resident called police to report a baby duckling fell in the sewer.
• Police noticed a vehicle heading south on Harlem Road without its headlights on after dark. When the officer stopped the suspect vehicle, he observed an odor of alcohol coming from the driver. He asked the driver for his license and registration and the driver replied, "I don't have my license or registration, I just have my license."
• A Southwestern Boulevard business reported that somebody stole three ice cream bars.
• A male confronted a female in the parking lot outside a supermarket after she dropped a piece of paper on the ground. He slapped her in the face and told her that he was a police officer. The man was arrested for harassment and criminal impersonation.
• A Depew woman reported that she used her wheelbarrow to take out the garbage, but when she returned from work, the wheelbarrow was gone, garbage and all.
• Police responded to the complaint of a man trespassing at the Lancaster Airport to find a 48-year-old man target shooting with a handgun 500 feet from the runway.
• A Sturm Street man reported that someone removed a 15-foot section of chain-link fence from his back yard, as well as four metal posts.
• A neighbor dispute was reported on Creekside Drive when a man put a refrigerator box out for garbage pickup and his neighbor took the box, filled it with wood, and put it back on the complainant's property.
• A grenade was found on Federal Avenue and brought into police headquarters.

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