Columbia Star

1963        Celebrating 60 Years      2023

Quirky Crimes in the Capital City





 

 

Forest Acres

tForest Drive: Police are searching for a woman who has stolen the identity of two other women and obtained loans in their names. In the first case, the thief gained access to the victim’s birth date as well as her social security number, and from there, she went on to create several fraudulent documents, including a birth certificate and a pay stub from a company she claimed to work for. After creating her new false identity, the shyster was able to obtain a $6,000 loan. In the second case, the victim found out someone using her name was applying for a $2,000 loan. When she went to the bank where the unknown woman applied for the loan, the bank employees were shocked to find the woman who was the victim and the woman trying to get fraudulent loans were two different races and not even close in age, weight, or height. Police confirmed the woman who they considered to be a victim was not the woman who was opening the accounts nor applying for the loans. During their investigation, they discovered the mystery thief did indeed obtain a third loan for $2,500 at a local credit union. Police are trying to identify her, so they can apprehend her.

Richland County tDecker Blvd: Police were called to a school at 8 a.m. Tuesday after a teacher found a student with a bottle of pills on her person. The teacher took the pills from the 13- year-old girl and then called police because he was afraid she had taken some, and he didn’t know what sort of pills they were. The girl admitted she brought the pills to school but denied she had personally taken any. After some discussion, the girl finally admitted she had brought the pills to school to sell. She said the “going price on the street was $20 a pill.” She was charged with possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute and held in custody until her mother showed up and agreed to the terms necessary for her to obtain custody of the errant teen. tPercival Road: A man’s mother called police at 2 p.m. Tuesday because she said her son refused to leave her home. The mother told officers she had allowed the 21-yearold man to live in her home until “he got himself arrested” and then went to jail. Now that he’s out, she doesn’t want him around her other children, so she told him he had to leave. At that point, she said he became loud and belligerent and refused to leave. She told him he was being disrespectful, and she had called police, but he still stayed. When officers arrived, the man was totally uncooperative. He wouldn’t meet their gaze, and he kept leaving the room apparently searching for unknown objects under piles of clothing on the floors. He was moving things and shoving things out of his way but wouldn’t say what he was looking for. He refused to stay put, so the officers finally had to put him in investigative detention which involved cuffing him and interrogating him. The address he gave while he was incarcerated was different from the mother’s home, and the man wouldn’t explain the reasons for that to the police. He finally agreed to leave when he was presented with a choice of leaving or returning to jail, and he was legally trespassed from the property permanently. He was told he would need a police escort to retrieve anything he claimed as his from the home.

West Columbia

tAugusta Road: An officer was flagged down near a motel at 8 p.m. Wednesday after some of the guests smelled smoke. The fire department was already on the scene when the officers arrived and began helping the fire fighters knock on doors to check on the guests. After an initial check, police returned to one room where the smoke seemed to be emitting from. A man answered the door, standing in a haze of smoke but assured the officer he “was trying to cook a Pop- Tart and left it in the microwave too long.” He also said he heard the officers and firefighters knocking on his door, but he couldn’t answer the first time because he was “taking a bath.” Unfortunately for the man, a firefighter was searching the room for the burnt food to extinguish it, and they found a plastic tub filled with bundles of what appeared to be raw methamphetamine in the bathroom. The officer placed the man under arrest, but the man adamantly denied the drug was his and repeatedly told officers and firefighters he had “no idea” how a “bucket of dope” got into his bathroom. He readily gave his permission for the officers to search his room, and, when they did, they found numerous items used to manufacture the raw bricks of the drug into processed “speed” commonly sold to be smoked or injected. Officers found all the chemicals needed to mix with the powdered drugs to make it street ready as well as all of the cooking utensils used to assemble the product. SLED was notified and an environmental clean up agency was called to clear out the hazardous materials. The man was charged with possession, manufacturing and intent to distribute narcotics.


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