Police Blotter - September 21, 2017

The following cases were taken from City of Charleston Police reports filed with Team 5 on Daniel Island between Aug. 15, 2017 and Sep. 13, 2017. This is part one of a two-part series.

Motor vehicle thefts

A motor vehicle theft was reported on Aug. 18 at an apartment complex off Clements Ferry Road. The complainant advised that he received a knock on the door from a gentlemen claiming to be with a towing company and that he was there to repossess the car. The complainant said that he was behind on his payments but did not think it was serious, according to the police report. He proceeded to collect belongings from his vehicle and handed his keys over to the man. When the victim contacted the bank, they said they had not repossessed his car. The vehicle is still missing and the case is still under investigation.

A pick-up truck was stolen from a resident’s driveway in Pierce Park on the night of Aug. 23. The complainant advised that he is missing a key for the vehicle and the vehicle had a push button ignition. According to Byrne, the vehicle was recovered the next day in North Charleston after a vehicle pursuit.

“We’re pretty confident that vehicle was taken from Daniel Island,” he said. “What stops it made in between, we don’t know necessarily. It ended up sometime later that night and that morning over in West Ashley. It was involved in some thefts over there. Some of the merchandise that was stolen from vehicles in West Ashley ended up in North Charleston when the suspect attempted to return it. Turns out that the person that he attempted to return it to was already familiar with the theft and called North Charleston police.”

North Charleston police responded to the store and when they tried to make contact, the suspect fled on foot and jumped into the vehicle, got into a vehicle pursuit and then fled later on, according to the report.

“He was arrested yesterday in Atlanta, Georgia in possession of another stolen vehicle,” said Byrne.” He’ll be extradited back to Charleston. I think MUSC has the extradition for him. He’ll probably have to answer to charges in Georgia first. He’s off the map now.”

Two more motor vehicle thefts occurred at the apartments off of Island Park Drive between Sept. 7 and 8. Both of those vehicles have been recovered within a couple blocks of each other in North Charleston, according to the report.

“The pick-up truck was recovered Saturday and the other one was recovered (Sept. 12) ,” said Byrne. “We believe that both vehicles were unlocked. We believe, can’t say for certain, that there were keys in both vehicles. We have no reason to think otherwise. In the same time frame, two other vehicles that were believed to be unlocked underneath one of the buildings, had been entered and rummaged through. We think that the suspect was going to do B&Es to the vehicles, would try door handles and see what was unlocked and then rummage through and see if there was anything good to take. If there was a key, then they would take the car.”

The suspect returned the next night and was spotted. Officers responded and attempted to stop them. The suspect fled into North Charleston.

“We have a policy that we do not do vehicle pursuits for very much of anything,” said Byrne. “It has to be very particular. Our policy outlines very specific circumstances. The crime basically has to be weapons crimes, things where people’s lives are in danger.”

Intimidation

Officers responded to a condominium complex off Clements Ferry Road on Aug. 18 in response to an intimidation call. The victim told police that when she came home, her neighbor’s boyfriend met her outside the house and began yelling and making threats towards her, according to the report. After she went inside, he continued to pound on the wall that divides the two residences. He then proceeded to go to the back of the residence and into her backyard, where he started knocking things over. The victim advised that he also drove across her grass in the front yard and squealed his tires. When the police confronted the offender he reportedly denied everything, but the complainant had a video of it. The offender was arrested for assault and taken to the Berkeley County Jail.

Theft from a building

A cell phone was stolen from a Clements Ferry Road gas station on Aug. 18. The complainant advised that she went into the gas station to make a drink at the soda fountain and put her phone down and forgot about it. She came back a few minutes later to retrieve her phone and somebody had taken it, according to the police report. At the time the report was written, the video cameras were not available.

Team 5 was called to a restaurant on Daniel Island on the afternoon of Aug. 20 in response to a theft from a building. According to the report, a young man was spotted on camera walking up to the host station, taking an electronic tablet and walking out of the restaurant with it.

A family contacted police on Aug. 26 after they discovered three checks had been taken from a checkbook in their home. The family reported that they had a baby sitter for two months and that they fired that individual on Aug. 15. According to the report, one of the checks had been presented for payment, which is how the family became aware of it. The other checks were stopped. The family is out several hundred dollars. When the report was written, the family and police did not know where the forgery took place.

A Daniel Island resident contacted police after his medicine went missing from the top of his desk in his office at an apartment complex in Daniel Island Park on Aug. 29. The office was unlocked.

An open-air storage closet was broken into at apartment complex on Seven Farms Drive between July 30 and Aug. 8, but it was not reported until Sep. 9. The victim told police that the closet had been broken into and several items were stolen during the first week of August.

Credit card fraud

A Daniel Island resident reported on Aug. 20 that she was contacted by her credit card company and advised that someone had attempted to buy a gift card using her credit card number on Aug. 19. The transaction did not go through.

Impersonation

On Aug. 13, a Daniel Island resident reported to police that she received an email from an unknown party saying that her PayPal account had been compromised. She provided personal information in response to the email, however the email was fraudulent.

Larceny

A trailer was reported stolen from a neighborhood off of Hwy. 41 on Aug. 17. According to the report, an unknown person drove onto the complainant’s property around 6:30 a.m. and took a utility trailer and a couple ladders. The complainant advised that when he heard the trailer go by in the morning, he thought it was a family member or friend borrowing it. When he made phone calls, he realized that was not the case.

Another trailer was stolen from a business between the evening of Sep. 4 and the morning of Sep. 5 on Wambaw Creek Road off of Clements Ferry Road. The trailer is an enclosed cargo trailer and was padlocked. This case is still under investigation.

Family Disturbance

Police responded to a family disturbance call recently at an apartment complex off of Clements Ferry Road . The complainant told police that she believed her son had been using illegal drugs and was coming down off of a high. He reportedly became very aggressive and started a verbal and physical altercation. The offender was eventually transported to the hospital for some scratches he had from the altercation and a broken tooth. According to Team 5 Commander Lt. James Byrne, the hospital conducted a mental evaluation and toxicology report.

Traffic arrest

An officer responded to an apartment complex on Seven Farms Drive in reference to a trespasser on Aug. 23. The complainant stated that the offender was her ex-boyfriend and that he had been coming to her work several times uninvited lately and ignoring her requests to leave, stated the report. When the officer got there, she said that she found him laying face down in front of the apartment with an open beer can sitting next to him. The officer ended up finding him in the driver’s seat of a vehicle parked in the apartment complex parking lot. The officer made contact and started questioning the offender and asked him to step out of the vehicle. The offender reportedly showed an open beer can in the center console. The officer then searched the vehicle and found additional beer in the front passenger seat. The offender was placed under arrest for an open container in a motor vehicle and taken to jail.

Daniel Island Publishing

225 Seven Farms Drive
Unit 108
Daniel Island, SC 29492 

Office Number: 843-856-1999
Fax Number: 843-856-8555

 

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