Crime & Safety

Shoplifter Tries to Steal Holiday Feast, Toys Stolen from Charity and Other Weird News

Our top strange police stories from Patch sites in northeast Georgia.

How low can you go? Last week, we told you about an Athens suspect who stole the rent money from a 7-year-old. This week we have the story of a “snatch-and-run” theft of Christmas toys from  a Walton County charity. The toys were for the Secret Santa Program and included items for many age groups.

Picking up dinner: Employees at a Johns Creek Whole Foods were on to a woman who looked suspicious while she pushed around a cart filled with enough food items to make a holiday feast. Their suspicions were affirmed when she bypassed the checkout lanes and headed for the door. The manager provided police with a receipt listing all 29 items taken: turkeys, keylime pies, spinach artichoke dip, boxes of clementines, items from the olive bar, salads, turkey wraps and assorted cheeses. The woman, a 56-yeard-old Alpharetta woman, told police she has a shoplifting problem.

Was it a squirt gun? The cashier at a Norcross-area hotel told a masked armed robber that she didn’t think the black handgun he was pointing at her was real. She told police she thought the gun was fake and was pretty sure she saw tape wrapped around parts of it. Still, she gave $100 to the suspect, who ran away. It’s not clear if the gun was indeed a fake.

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A night to remember (or forget): An inebriated Dacula woman made a spectacle of herself at two local restaurants and it landed her in jail. That was after she . After a tirade filled with expletives and ethnic epithets while in the patrol car, she then asked a female deputy at the Gwinnett County jail if the deputy wanted a girlfriend.

Customer beware: Competition between used-car salesmen over a customer turned into a fight that provoked an officer to draw his weapon to stop the altercation. Two of the salesmen had Volvos for sale at Peach State Auto Auction and both had their eyes on the same prospective buyer. That spawned a fight that involved several men. The fight was broken up by an off-duty officer from the Loganville Police Department who worked at the auction. The prospective buyer left without making a purchase.

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It's the thought that counts, right? A North Carolina man asked for mercy from the arresting officer after he was found with crack cocaine, marijuana and an open can of beer during a traffic stop — the “triple crown” of traffic stops, if you will. The man, who was a passenger in a Dodge Caravan that was stopped near I-85 in the Hamilton Mill area of Dacula, asked the cop to toss out the crack because he didn’t want to face a felony charge as he was trying to turn his life around. He said he intended to sell the crack to buy a Christmas gift for his child.

Waking up (nearly) naked: A 22-year-old Buford man who was found in a hotel lobby wearing only his underwear told police he remembered waking up in the woods, setting his clothes on fire and then walking to the hotel — but that’s about it. Police asked the man if he had taken any drugs. His reply: “At least marijuana.”

ATM machine withdrawal: Thieves wanting some easy money but not so concerned about their truck, smashed it through the windows of a Chevron station in Winder to steal an ATM machine. The machine was found later in Jackson County.

You might also be interested in reading:

7-year-old Robbed of Rent Money and Other Weird News of the Week

Armadillo Stuffed Into Mailbox and Other Strange Police News

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