West Columbia

tAugusta Road, 2400 block: Police were called to a discount department store at 5 p.m. Tuesday after a man tried to swindle a clerk. The 25–year–old man went into the store and in front of a security guard, pocketed two locks worth about $60 and walked out of the store to his car. The guard followed the man under cover and watched him put the locks into a bag with the store’s name on it. He then went back inside and tried to get a refund on the locks. At that time the guard confronted the man and detained him until police arrived and placed him under arrest.

tAugusta Road, 2400 block: A woman called police at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday after she said a man she hadn’t seen in a year beat her up. The 19–year–old woman said she was driving when the man pulled up to her vehicle and began yelling at her. She said he punched her in the eye and drove off. She said she had no idea why he attacked her.

tD Avenue, 3400 block: Police were called to a business at 9 a.m. Tuesday after the owner discovered $10,000 to be missing from the till. The owner told officers he had fired a woman he suspected was stealing, but he had no idea how much money she had taken. The owner said the woman was taking payment from customers and using an unused receipt book to give receipts to the people who paid their bills. When he confronted her, she denied stealing any money, but she couldn’t explain why her signature was on the payments in a different receipt book that added up to the missing amount. The 45–year–old woman told the owner that someone was obviously “setting her up.”

Forest Acres

tCovenant Road, 3400 block: A woman called police at 3 a.m. Saturday to report her roommate’s boyfriend was harassing her. The woman said the caller was the ex–boyfriend of her best friend who lives with her, and the friend wouldn’t take the man’s calls. She said that once the friend stopped taking the calls the man started calling and texting her and refused to stop. She said the friend didn’t want any contact with the man and neither did she. An officer called the man and informed him if he didn’t cease calling he would be charged with harassing phone calls.

tBeltline Blvd., 2000 block: Police were called to a home at 8 p.m. Thursday after a woman said a male caller threatened to kill her. The 30–year–old woman told officers she recognized the man’s voice and thinks it’s a man who lives in her building. She said she thought the man might still be upset at her for hitting him in the head with a frying pan earlier that day, but she said the man punched her first while he was visiting her cousin. The man denied hitting the woman or threatening her but the woman had a bruised and swollen area on her head where she said he punched her. The man claimed the woman burst into an apartment he was visiting wielding a frying pan and attacked him. Neither of the two witnesses at the incident scene could verify nor deny either person’s story. They both said they heard yelling and saw a frying pan waving in the air but didn’t know any details as to what to whom.

tCovenant Road, 3400 block: Police were called to an apartment building at 10 p.m. Thursday after some men got into a fight over a previous altercation at a church’s food pantry. The man who called police told the officer he was picking up a few groceries at the food pantry when the other man yelled at him to stop staring at him. The other man pulled out a gun on the first man and told the first man to leave him alone because he was armed and dangerous. The first man then fled, but the armed man told him he knew where he lived and he would find him. The fleeing man told police he was pretty sure he heard a gun being cocked as he fled, but he never saw it. He said he was afraid for his safety and planned on leaving the state.

tBeltline Blvd., 2000 block: A man called police to report he accidently caused hot cigarette ashes to go into his girlfriend’s face at 9 p.m. Wednesday. The 29–year–old man told officers he and his 25–year–old girlfriend were stressed out due to an eviction notice they had received telling them they must vacate their home by midnight the next day. The man said he and the woman were arguing when the woman put her hands on him while holding a lit cigarette, and when he tried to get her hands off, he hit the cigarette and scattered the ashes in the air and in her eyes. The woman didn’t want to press charges, but the man said he thought he should report the incident since he had previous domestic abuse problems, and the Domestic Abuse Center told him to report anything out of the ordinary.

Richland Sheriff

tHunt Club Road, 7800 block: A man called police at 11:30 p.m. Tuesday after he received a bill charging him for medical treatment by Richland County EMS. The man told officers he now lives in North Carolina and doesn’t carry that insurance at all anymore. He said the old card had all of his identifying information including his social security number, and now he is worried about possible identity theft.

tForum Drive, 100 block: A man was arrested at 9:30 p.m. Thursday after refusing to leave a shopping mall. The 29–year–old man had caused previous problems at the mall and had been formally trespassed from the area. When guards recognized him Thursday, they gave him several chances to just leave without incident, but he refused. He told them to arrest him, so they did.

tParkview Drive, 7000 block: Police were called to a warehouse at 9 p.m. Monday after a man said he thought his son might be stealing from him. The man told officers that every time his son was at his home things disappeared, and his son was the only other person beside himself who had a key to the warehouse.