Police Beat

by Noell Wolfgram Evans

A scooter-wielding suspect, a unique way to beat the heat, mysterious lotion bottles and an unconventional way to drop in and say hello kept Broadview Heights police officers busy this past July.

A different way to beat the heat

“Disbelief” is how the officer responding to a call on Fox Hollow Drive described what he encountered. What he found was a male resident out for an evening bike ride wearing just a tank top and what was described as a “bluish green jockstrap-like contraption.” The officer asked the man to stop for a moment and inquired as to what he was doing. “Going for a bike ride,” was the response. The officer then got around to asking why he was not wearing pants. Or underwear. “It’s hot,” the man responded. And he wasn’t wrong. The man was very apologetic if he offended anyone and said this was an outfit he just wore on vacation and had received nary a second look. After some discussion, the man agreed to let one officer drive him home while the second officer followed on the bike.

Police cruiser 1, scooter 0

Officers were making a routine patrol down East Edgerton Road when a pedestrian flagged them down. The resident was concerned over a man “driving wildly” on a motorized scooter. After getting the suspect’s description, officers realized this could be the same individual that Brecksville police were looking for following complaints of a man throwing things at his neighbor’s doors. The officers went looking for the suspect only to discover that Brecksville police already located him and were attempting to have him pull the scooter over. The man did not stop and instead tried to turn down Misty Oakes Drive to get away. Waiting for him there was a Broadview Heights cruiser. Perhaps unsure of what else to do, the man drove into the passenger side of the squad car and then took off on foot. That was when a second Broadview Heights police team arrived. The suspect was undeterred and still attempted to get away. Officers urged him to stop but when he did not, he was tased.

A delicious diversion

A Broadview Road store requested the assistance of the city’s police following a shoplifting incident. A male already made his purchase when he decided he also wanted a sweet treat. But he didn’t want to pay for it. A box of packaged cookies sitting on the checkout counter would allow him to fulfill both of his needs so he scooped up a handful and headed out the door. The store clerk instructed him to put the cookies down, but before they could do anything more, a woman who was with the sweet-toothed shoplifter grabbed a handful of candy and threw it at the clerk, rendering her sugar-coated and disoriented. In the confusion, the suspects escaped. But they left behind a rather large clue – the man used to work at the scene of the crime. It was not difficult for police to locate and cite him.

It’s raining men

Multiple Broadview Heights police teams rushed to a Seneca Boulevard residence when the call came through: “A man just fell through my ceiling.” It was early morning when the resident heard a loud banging that seemed to be coming from the ceiling. She tracked it to its clearest point, which was in the hallway, but before she could even try and imagine what it was, it stopped. That’s when a man fell out of the ceiling. He stood up and dusted himself off as he complained about being trapped in there for five hours. The resident screamed at him to get out, which he did without hesitation. When police arrived they found a handprint along with a confused resident with so many questions.

The ashy intruder

Dispatchers sent officers to a Lexington Circle residence to investigate a potential home break-in by a moisturizing-conscious suspect. The homeowners were concerned because there were three bottles of lotion on a nightstand that neither of them recognized. No one else had been in the house, the kids were on vacation and all of the doors and windows were closed up tight. It’s a seemingly locked-room mystery Agatha Christie could only dream up.

Done in by a fly

A three-car accident on East Royalton Road quickly brought Broadview Heights officers to the scene. When questioning the drivers about what happened, one admitted she had been at fault for the accident. She said she accidentally swerved into the other lane of traffic when she was fighting a fly in her car. She was reluctant to provide the officer with more than a name, date of birth and a driver’s license. This gave officers pause and so they did some digging and discovered that this was the information for the driver’s sister. The driver who, it turns out, actually was wanted for three active warrants. With this revelation she was taken into custody. No word on if the fly received a special citation for its part in helping to close those warrants.

‘Stealing’ your own stuff

A Parkview Lane resident was surprised when the camera on his front door alerted him that a package was delivered as he hadn’t ordered anything recently. But he was more surprised a short while later when he received a second notification that someone just pulled the package off the porch and drove off with it. Police were able to use the resident’s porch camera footage and the Flock camera system to locate the car and the driver who readily admitted he had taken the package because, in fact, it was his own package! The driver was able to provide order and shipping details to show that the shipping address had been generated incorrectly, which he said is a very common thing they deal with.

Dine-and-dash becomes crash-and-dash

A worker at a West Royalton Road restaurant was just trying to get through her shift when a regular came in and “someone just hit your car.” The worker ran outside and sure enough a car was sitting right behind hers and she could see damage to both vehicles. She approached the driver and they discussed what had happened and what they needed to do. The worker said she wanted to call the police, which caused the other driver to suddenly remember she had to be somewhere and she quickly drove off.

Using descriptions and pictures provided by the worker, officers used the Flock system to locate the car in question. When an officer, with no sirens or lights, pulled up next to the car to visually confirm it was the suspect, the driver did what anyone would do – treat the red light they were stopped at as more of a suggestion than a rule. That brought the cruiser lights on. When questioned, the driver said the damage to the car came from a mailbox. The officer asked about the earlier incident in the restaurant parking lot and she said “Well, yeah. That too.” At that point, the driver was asked to step out of the car for further questions and testing.