Decatur Police Officers compare notes in the parking lot of Decatur High. File photo by Dan Whisenhunt

All information in this report was provided by Decatur Police and is presumed to be accurate. 

Man stealing

On July 9 at 2:30 am a police officer responded to a call about a theft in progress at East Ponce de Leon Avenue and Clairemont Avenue. The officers learned that a man kept trying to steal a road construction sign from a work site. The person filing the complaint pointed to the suspect when officers arrived. The suspect told a police officer he was just out for a walk. Then he ran. The officer ran after him and captured the suspect. The person who filed the complaint said he worked for the cable company and saw the suspect take an orange “Men Working” sign that the workers were using to alert oncoming traffic. The person had followed the suspect for two blocks as he dragged the sign along with him. The suspect dropped the sign at the 200 block of East Ponce de Leon and fled. The person picked up the sign and brought it back to the work site. Then the suspect came back right around the time police arrived. The man who filed the complaint said he didn’t want to press charges over the attempted theft of the sign. Police charged the suspect, a 24-year-old from Loganville, with obstructing a police officer.

Urban camping

On June 3 at 11:30 pm a police officer arrived at a business in the 300 block of East Howard Avenue after getting a call about criminal trespass and “urban camping.”  Police had already warned the suspect about trespassing at the business and trespassing at a home in the area. An employee of the business told officers that the suspect had returned and he was concerned the suspect would cut the power to the business, something the suspected had done before. Officers found the suspect sleeping on a pallet. Police arrested the 56-year-old Atlanta man and charged him with “urban camping.”

Found your phone

On June 2 at 7:10 pm police officers met with with a woman in the 1100 block of Clairemont Avenue who used a “find my iPhone” app and got an address where her phone might be located. Police discovered that a 13-year-old female from DeKalb County had stolen the phone. They got the phone back to the owner and charged the juvenile with theft by taking.

Terroristic threats

On June 12 at 1:15 pm, officers went to the 100 block of West Benson Street “in reference to terroristic threats.” The victim told officers he was standing in the yard with his neighbor and her two children when the suspect approached the children while they were playing. The man approached the suspect, who said, “I’m going to shoot you, you white trash mother !@#$%^!”  When police arrested the suspect, a 64-year-old Decatur man, he continued making threats. He told the officer, “I’m gonna make sure you die cracker,” “You’re a stupid white trash mother !@#$%^,” and “I’m going to get you killed cracker.” He was charged with making terroristic threats and disorderly conduct.

Keeper of the keys

On July 5, an officer went to the 600 block of West Howard Avenue after receiving a call about a burglary. The victim told police that on July 2 at 10 pm he gave the keys to a storage cooler to a man who was doing odd jobs at the location and asked him to secure the cases of beer in the cooler. The man didn’t return the keys before leaving the store. The victim later discovered the case of beer missing. Video surveillance showed the man who did odd jobs return to the location and enter the cooler to steal the case of beer. Police issued a warrant for burglary and arrested the man, a 55-year-old from Decatur.