Police Beat

by Noell Wolfgram Evans

1, 2, 3 strikes you’re out

Sept. 30: A call came in that there was a vehicle broken down on the side of I-77. When Brecksville officers arrived on scene, they discovered that the driver had been playing a curious game of ping-pong.

A sleeping driver bounced the car off of the guardrail on the left side of the freeway. This startled the driver awake and they attempted to course correct by driving into the same guardrail. Quickly realizing his mistake, the driver tried to right the ship again and this time crossed the lanes and bounced into the guardrail on the right side of the road. At that point the car gave up.

Mr. Krabs

Sept. 8: Brecksville officers responded to a report of a shoplifter at a local grocery store. When officers arrived in the parking lot they were met by the loss prevention team from the store who identified the male suspect. The officer spoke with the man who said he’d gone into the store for a ham but the crab legs called out to him so he walked out with those instead. And he literally walked out with them – he filled his pants with $281.57 worth of crab legs.

The getaway car

Sept. 4: A Brecksville police officer was monitoring traffic on I-77 when a white Jeep passed him quickly, only to suddenly slow way down. This sparked the officer’s attention so he followed the car to get more information. He wanted a license plate number, but could only get a partial reading because of condensation under the plate holder. The officer tried to read the numbers from directly behind the Jeep to no avail, so he pulled into the right lane and then the left lane to see if a different angle would help. Eventually, he pulled back behind the car and tried to read it with his brights on. He would have used a periscope if it was standard issue. Finally, he just pulled the car over and got an up-close look at the heretofore hidden final digits. While running a check on the plates, the officer discovered that the car had been used when a local retailer was robbed. The driver was taken into custody.

Five more minutes, mom

Sept. 19: During a routine early morning check of a parking lot, a Brecksville police officer found a car running with the driver fast asleep at the wheel. And he was out. The officer tried to rouse him by tapping on the window, and then when that didn’t work, he opened the car door and tried to shake him awake. Finally, he shined his flashlight in the driver’s face and that brought him back from dreamland. The officer asked the driver to turn off the car, which he did. He then asked the driver to get out of the car, which the driver took to mean start it back up. After refusing to take a sobriety test, the driver was escorted to jail.