It’s common for someone to blame the traffic for being late to work. But a Lawrenceville woman flipped that around to explain why she had side-swiped another vehicle in a Snellville-area intersection. The woman said she was sitting in a left-turn lane during a red light, then decided she wanted to go straight through the intersection. According to the police report, she punched it when the light turned green, struck the car and continued on her way. Police caught up later and heard this explanation — she was late for work. The woman was arrested and charged with several offenses, including hit-and-run, improper lane change and no proof of insurance. She ended up being really late for work.

Was it worth it? A woman was arrested for allegedly robbing a man of $40 at a Norcross-area Motel 6. The woman, a Lawrenceville resident, knocked on the man’s door and when he answered, she burst through, grabbed the money off a table and fled. After she was caught, she told police she didn’t want to go jail for 20 bucks. But after the officer told her it was $40, she said, "Oh, well, that's a lot of money."

An Athens woman and two juvenile girls apparently had their own version of back-to-school shopping. They were caught at a local Walmart reportedly trying to steal school supplies and snacks. The woman and girls were seen by an employee placing school supplies, grapes and strawberries into backpacks, which also were stolen. The girls tried to walk out of the store but were caught.

You’ve heard of wine and cheese, right? What about wine and biscuits? Recently, a woman tried to make off with some adult beverages and a package of biscuits from a Stone Mountain-area Kroger — total value, $17.94. When she saw that a store employee spotted what she was doing, she picked up her pace, but the employee headed her off at the pass.

A pair of droopy drawers led to the end of a joy ride for a group of Lilburn-area teens who were too young to drive. A Lilburn Police officer sitting in an unmarked car saw three kids, all 14 years old, run past him and jump into a white van. As one of the teens jumped into the driver’s seat, his baggy pants fell below his knees and his underwear slipped below his butt cheeks. That really got the officer’s attention. He found out that the kids sneaked away in “Uncle Jose’s” van, according to the police report. The cop called the uncle, who said he had no idea the van was gone.

Perhaps wanting a post-crime snack, a burglar who stole two chain saws from a shed at a Dacula-area residence also raided the garden. Police followed a trail from the shed into a wooded area, where an officer recovered a bag of peppers that were plucked from the garden. 

At least he got a ride. An apparently intoxicated Dacula man hitching for a ride ended up with a seat in the back of a police cruiser. The 21-year-old, who later told police he was at a party and just wanted to go home, was reportedly on the road trying to wave down motorists when police stopped him after 3:30 a.m. on Lawrenceville-Suwanee Road. "I was startled by him being in the roadway and swerved to my right to avoid striking the male," the officer wrote in the arrest report. The man was charged as a pedestrian under the influence.

A man, using slight of hand, walked out of an Athens liquor store with a bottle of vodka. The surveillance video showed the man grab a bottle of Grey Goose vodka and walk to the end of an aisle, apparently to conceal it. When he walked out of the store, he wasn’t holding the booze anymore. The police report surmised that he hid the bottle in his pants leg.

You might also be interested in reading:

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Shoplifting Suspect Dumps Empty Boxes in Store's Toilet and Other Strange Police News of the Week

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