The theme this week involves the tips about what not to do when running from police. The first tip is to not commit a crime to start with, but that goes without saying. The second tip is to not run. This week’s offerings of stupid criminal didn’t follow either of those tips.
Two officers were patrolling in their roller around East 66th Street on Sept. 13 and spotted two men apparently working on the engine of a car that had stopped along the side of the road. The officers pulled over to offer assistance. One of the men got into the passenger’s seat when the officers arrived. The remaining man said he had the car repair under control, so the officers drove off. They then returned after realizing the passenger had an outstanding warrant. When the officers returned, the man flew from the passenger’s seat and jumped a fence. “It appeared to me that he was intentionally attempting to avoid arrest and contact by police,” the officer wrote in the incident report. The man eluded police, even a police tracking dog. The officers then continued their patrol, only to see the same two men in the same car driving a few blocks away. They pulled the car over and arrested the man with outstanding warrants. The driver turned out to be the man’s brother, who said he wanted his brother arrested and booked into jail so he could get some sort of treatment for his drug addiction.
A man found himself wearing police-issued bracelets when his girlfriend called 911 on Sept. 13, saying he was assaulting her. An officer arrived to find the couple sitting on the front porch of their house along the 5600 block of ‘J’ Street. The man immediately stood up and ran when the officer approached. Since the man was already known to police, the officer went to the nearby house of a friend of the suspect. The man was found in the attic during a search of the house. He said he ran because “one more arrest would ‘screw up’ the conditions of his release.” He had a felony warrant. The woman, apparently a heroin addict, later gave several versions of the night’s events.
Compiled by Steve Dunkelberger