Richland County

tTwo Notch Road, 3000 block: A man walking along the road way flagged down a police car at 2:30 p.m. Thursday to tell the officer someone was stealing the grates from storm drains in the area. When the officer investigated, he found several grates missing from the drains and contacted the property manager. She told the officer that the same thing had happened at another property in the 9000 block of Two Notch two weeks earlier.

Forest Acres

tForest Drive, 4000 block: Police were called to a gas station at 10 a.m. Thursday after a man with a history of mental health issues was causing a scene in the parking lot. The man’s car broke down, and his friend was trying to help him when the man became highly agitated. The woman who was trying to help the man told officers his mental health was rapidly deteriorating, and he needed to be hospitalized. The man told the officer he hated hospitals, and he wasn’t going but that he would stay on his medication. At that point the officer told the friend the man didn’t have to go to the hospital and gave them a ride home. tTrenholm Road, 5000 block: Police were called to a bank at 8 a.m. Thursday after a 21-year-old woman was discovered writing anti-abortion statements in chalk on the sidewalk and in the parking lot. When police arrived, the woman never told them why she chose that particular business, but she said she was trying to save unborn babies. She was checked for warrants and when none were found she was warned that if she continued going onto private property to express her views in writing she would be charged with trespassing and vandalism. tForest Drive, 4000 block: A man called police from a gym at 7 p.m. Wednesday after he said another man was masturbating in the sauna while they were both in there. The 40-year-old man told officers he was sitting in the sauna wrapped in a towel when the other man whom he didn’t know came in also wearing a towel. After about five minutes the first man said the second man removed his towel and began to earnestly pleasure himself. The first man said he yelled at the man and asked him what he thought he was doing, and that’s when the man fled the sauna clutching his towel. The witness to the incident reported it to the gym employees who then told him to report it to police. tJohn Francis Court, 3000 block: Police were called to a home at 11:30 a.m. Wednesday after a man said a woman was attacking him. When officers arrived, both the man and woman were in the back yard and appeared calm. The woman told officers she had been trying to talk to the man when he had shut the bedroom door in her face. She said that’s when she got mad and kicked the door in. A piece of the splintered wood from the shattered door hit the man in the face and cut his chin on a piece of wood. A police check on both people revealed that the man was wanted by the state parole board. He was arrested and taken to Alvin S. Glen to wait until a parole officer could pick him up.

West Columbia

tAugusta Road, 2000 block: Police were called to a parking lot at 12:30 a.m. Thursday after someone reported a man exposing himself. When officers arrived, they found the man urinating behind a building. The 57-yearold man told officers his boss had dropped him off at a gas station, and he was on his way home when he realized he needed to relieve himself. The officer asked him why he didn’t just go to the restroom at the gas station or the store where he was dropped off, and he told him that both of those bathrooms were locked. The officer explained that all he would have had to do was ask for a key, and the employees would have let him use the facilities. Because the man wasn’t drunk and had no record, he was given a citation and warned not to urinate in public in the future. tCharleston Highway, 1500 block: A woman went to the police station at 2 p.m. Wednesday after she said her son was stalking her. The 74-year-old woman told officers she was sitting in her car in a parking lot reading her mail she had just retrieved when her 56-year-old son pulled up beside her with his girlfriend in a strange truck. She said the son wasn’t driving his usual vehicle, but when he unexpectedly pulled up beside her he began to yell at her that he had been hearing “bad things” about her. When she asked him what he was talking about he became enraged and started calling her names, some of them obscene, she said. She said she implored her son to lower his voice and stop swearing, but that only made him madder. She said she was afraid to get out of the car, so she told her son she was going to the police to report him. At that point, she said her son told her “If you go to the law, I will torture you for the rest of your life. I know where you live.” She said she is now afraid for her safety as this isn’t the first time her son has berated her in public. She said he had never threatened to harm her before, and now she doesn’t know what to do. She said she was afraid he would do something to her house or her car or maybe even hurt her. tRaleigh Street, 700 block: A man was arrested at 3 p.m. Wednesday after employees from a children’s day care reported him lurking around the area. The day care’s surveillance tapes showed the man walking around the facility and looking at the children as they played. When officers arrived, they found the 41-year-old man urinating on the sidewalk on the side of the day care. He was taken into custody and charged with indecent exposure. He apologized to the officers for urinating in public, but a computer check turned up a warrant for him from family court in Richland County. He was turned over to the sheriff’s department at that point. It wasn’t clear if his family court issues concerned any of the children at the day care center.