Archive for January, 2010

Homicide arrests: In case you didn’t catch this from media reports, detectives have arrested three people in connection with the September 28 homicide at 550 Abernathy Road Apartments. This makes a total of six arrests in the case with at least one more on the horizon. The shooting was over a drug transaction. The buyers tried to pay $58,000 in counterfeit money for 2 kilos of cocaine prompting a shootout leaving two dead and two wounded.

SSPD has kicked off class 003 of the Citizen’s Police Academy.  The program will run 11 weeks and include presentations and hands-on training in a number of areas of police organization and operations. Class 004 will kick off in the late spring.  Interested parties should e-mail Officer Larry Jacobs.

Norsca and Officer Sean Hanse.

One of our retired K-9 family members passed away recently. Norsca, who served several years with Fulton County Police, died from cancer at the age of 13.

Norsca retired from service when Handler Officer Sean Hanse …

Continue reading News bites from the cop shop »

One thing that I do a lot is read police reports. I read a lot of reports. I read them every day. There are some things that happen over and over again. Daytime reports are boring. Most are burglaries, thefts, accidents, shoplifting and the occasional livestock-trailer accident sending dozens of cows running amok in the lovely suburbs of Sandy Springs.

I still have fond memories of screaming frantic-ridden phone calls of cow sightings. “Ma’am—it’s a cow. Not a bear. There are no killer cows. We’ll come pick it up. The worst that will happen is it will stare at you while it chews your begonias.”

The nighttime reports are much better — better because the crazy people come out to play.

Just after midnight, a guy gets out of the car and goes behind a building to urinate. He walks back out and there’s a cop standing next to his car.  The cop asks what he was doing. The man says he was taking a leak. They both knew that but burglars break into buildings late at night and the guy was …

Continue reading At night, the crazy people come out to play »

At around 11 p.m., SSPD officers responded to a complaint of fireworks and a loud party at a house in the 600 block of Londonberry Drive. When they arrived they found a lot of cars parked along both sides of the roadway — which is a no-no, big time, because we cannot get emergency vehicles, namely fire trucks, into the area when cars are parked on both sides.

The officers determined that the home was for sale and apparently rented to someone who was hosting a party and charging $20 at the door. A shuttle service brought party goers from the Northside-Powers Ferry Road shopping center. (Sound familiar?)

The officers estimated between 500 to 700 people were at the residence, including 50 waiting in line to get in. Officers shut down the party and arrested the two organizers, charging them with running a disorderly house.

Don’t develop routines that tip off the bad guys

The Rite-Aid store in the 4500 block of Roswell Road reported a robbery that occurred at about 6:30 in the …

Continue reading Yet another giant-sized house party »

It’s snowing and we’re all going to die.

That’s right. It’s all over now because we could have over an inch of snow. You and I both know that means certain death and the end of civilization as we strangely know it.

Many years from now our fore and aft fathers will speak of the 2010 Flurries of Death that swept northern Georgia:

“I can remember my great-grandfather. He had so much more to give. He was killed by a flurry. Never had a chance.”

And to think we were worried about the H1N1.

As I sit and write, flurries are falling to the ground, plotting, waiting — waiting for just the right moment. God help you people in your cars!! Go as far as you can! Don’t look back! Save yourselves!

Flurries everywhere — must … keep … driving …

Everyone will be gone soon. Most have abandoned their buildings, cars and the tollbooths for the already-paid-for Georgia 400. Soon the city will look as barren as the desert, or worse — as Detroit.

But not the weather people. They’re with us to the …

Continue reading Flurry madness! »

Based on a call, officers were dispatched to the parking lot of the Whole Foods, in the 5900 block of Roswell Road, concerning a man who was hiding between two cars parked in the lot. When the cops got there, the man was still hiding between the cars. As the officer approached the man whom he saw hiding between the two cars, the man rose up, saw the officer, and then ducked down again — I’m guessing in an effort to make himself invisible.

The man told the officer that he was playing with a laser pointer, which he could not produce. (Apparently he couldn’t make himself invisible but the laser pointer managed to disappear.) He did have a knife and the officer found scratches on the car, indicating the man attempted to get into it. The man had been arrested on Dec. 13 for the same thing. He was arrested for prowling and loitering and taken to jail.

When you see something suspicious, don’t second-guess yourself. There’s no bad reason to call. The number for Sandy Springs Police is …

Continue reading How getting involved helps us catch the bad guys »