Empty Hot Sauce Bottle Thrown Through Window

Between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m. on Wednesday, a burglar broke into a home in the 1300 block of Stevens Ridge Drive and stole at least 20 hunting rifles with a combined value of $20,000, 17 watches with a combined value of more than $9,000, two laptops, an iPad, at least 12 handguns, a couple of boxes of flatware, and a couple of collectible items including a baseball cap signed by Hank Aaron as well as a couple of autographed baseballs.

At around 5 p.m. on Wednesday, a reckless driver almost caused a minor accident in the 1200 block of Burlington Boulevard. When the would-be victim said something to the miscreant, he jumped out of his vehicle and took a baseball bat to the front of her car, causing several hundred dollars worth of damage. When the woman told the vandal that she was just telling him to be careful, he said “sorry” and jumped back into his vehicle and fled. Luckily, a witness was able to get his license plate number.

At 9 a.m. on Thursday, police found two FedEx boxes containing two fake Macbooks in the 900 block of South Hampton Road. These are part of the scam where a swindler fills a FedEx box with magazines, picture frames, or even rocks, and then tries to pass it off as actual Apple products. If someone approaches you and offers to sell you electronics on the cheap, it’s best to politely refuse…then call the police!

More strange crimes after the jump!

At around 1:30 p.m. on Thursday, a woman left a diaper bag sitting outside her vehicle while she was inside signing papers at a dealership in the 1000 block of West Jefferson Boulevard. When she was leaving, she thought she saw an employee with her wallet hidden in a stack of papers he was carrying, but she didn’t think to actually check her bag until a few hours later when she realized that the wallet and it’s contents, which included $65 cash, a debit card, and two Social Security cards, was missing. When she returned to the dealership and confronted the clerk, he denied having seen the wallet. I’ll never understand why you would leave a bag containing your wallet outside while you signed papers (which probably took awhile), or why you wouldn’t check to make sure everything was accounted for, but the victim was barely out of her teens, which probably explains a lot.

At 4:30 a.m. on Friday, a resident of the 600 block of Brooks Avenue caught a thief trying to steal the wheels from his black 2011 Chevy SUV. The thief fled with one $600 rim.

At noon on Saturday, police were inspecting Cityview Food Store in the 800 block of North Lancaster Avenue for allegedly selling weapons and vehicles illegally. They discovered a 12-gauge stolen shotgun in a back room, as well as a glass display case containing 10 counterfeit CDs, a bootleg DVD, an illegal weapon, and drug paraphernalia. Shahed Azzam Musleh, 29, was arrested on forgery, possession, and prohibited weapon charges. I don’t understand how the owners/operators of this business could have counterfeit goods on display (right by the front door the report says) and not expect to get arrested/shut down. I thought that this type of sale was always done under the table, or in the back room, etc, but apparently thieves are getting bolder these days.

At around 7:40 p.m. on Saturday, a resident of the 1600 block of West Twelfth Street heard a loud noise coming from his driveway. He found a large, empty, hot-sauce bottle had been thrown through a window on his blue 2013 Dodge pickup, causing several hundred dollars worth of damage.

At around 3 p.m. on Sunday, a resident of the 2600 block of Gladstone Drive reported that he saw his neighbor’s children shooting their dogs with a BB gun. The children’s mother admitted to having a BB gun, but she denied that it was used on the pets. The thought of anyone using a BB gun on any animal is seriously upsetting. I hope that this didn’t actually happen, and I hope these kids get a good spanking if it did.