Police Blotters are a daily written record of events or arrests. Most local police stations receive calls from people asking for help, report suspicious behavior or to make a complaint. The daily reports from the ‘police blotter’ were regularly published in community newspapers. Many smaller community papers still publish the ‘Police Blotter.’ They are and also became one of the most popular read sections in the paper.
The “Police Blotter” reports below were taken from actual newspaper publications from all over the county. Many are funny, a few not so much.
• 5 p.m. – Police were called to Market Square for a report about a “suspicious coin.” Investigating officer reported it was a quarter.
• A noise complaint was reported on Pin Oak Drive. Police responded and found a 50th anniversary party. The seniors were advised to turn down the Frank Sinatra music.
• Police solve case of the missing bacon – A Grand Rapids resident told police last week that someone had entered his home during the night and taken five pounds of bacon from the refrigerator. Upon further investigation, police discovered his wife had gotten up for a late night snack, but was afraid to admit it.
• A caller reported at 7:14 p.m. that someone was on a porch yelling “help” from a residence on Bank Street. Officers responded and learned the person was calling a cat that is named “Help.”
• 8:28 a.m. A Lamphear Court woman said her son was attacked by a cat and the cat would not allow her to take her son to the hospital.
• A man reported that a squirrel was running in circles on Davis Drive and was not sure if it was sick or had been hit by a car. An officer responded and as he drove on the street he ran over the squirrel.
• 2:58 p.m. – The Learning Center on Hanson Street reports a man across the way stands at his window for hours watching the center, making parents nervous. Police ID the subject as a cardboard cutout of Arnold Schwarzenegger.
• A man who lives in Fairfield filed a complaint with police on Sunday about someone ringing his doorbell and leaving a photocopy of buttocks on his front stoop. The complainant, Edgar Butts, told police the incident has happened several times in the past two weeks.
• 9:36 a.m. Suspicious person / circumstance. A woman from Northfield turned over to the police department some marijuana that was found in a parking lot. If you lost a bag of marijuana, please come to the Northfield Police Dept. and claim the bag.
• A deputy responded to a report of a vehicle stopping at mail boxes. It was the mailman.
• Theft: A woman in the 1900 block of 129th Lane Northeast reported Oct. 15 that someone must have stolen her mail, because she did not receive birthday cards from some of her friends.
• At 8:29 p.m., police received a call from a Dubois woman who said she smelled something funny in her room last night. She believed that it might be her husband.
• Police checked the area and found an open door in the back of the building. An officer went inside and called out, “Marco.”
The man’s name was not Marco, detective Tim Dohr said. Instead, “the officer was trying to inject some humor into the situation.”
Police found the suspect after he responded, “Polo.”
• An Edgewood man reported recently that his wife had gone missing some 18 months ago.
• An Oak Hill community couple discovered a thief in their home Saturday after a man told a joke and heard a laugh upstairs.
• Failure to identify. During a disturbance call a man gave an officer a false name and was arrested after he was found to have warrants for both names.
• 3:35 a.m. Standard area—A woman on Srrano Road said two people were in her backyard cutting her marijuana plants.
• A woman reported Thursday that someone broke into her home on the 1200 block of Summer Street and switched hardware in her computer with identical hardware that doesn’t work. There are no leads.
• 10:05 p.m. Police received a call from a woman who said her juvenile granddaughter was at the ski area last week and ran into a person who was selling bags of what she thought were Portobello mushrooms dipped in chocolate for $30. Police said the granddaughter further informed her grandmother that giraffes were chasing her down the hill after she ate the mushrooms.
• Sept. 7 – Police located the owner of a black cow on Highway 3/95 and asked him to moo-ve it.
• Six men, their faces covered with red bandanas, got out of the Cherokee carrying a knife, baseball bat, billy club and rolling pin, said Davis, 20.
“I knew when I saw the rolling pin that something bad was going to go down,” Davis said.
• A resident suspected a neighbor of breaking a kitchen window with a watermelon.
• A Sycamore Street woman reported a strange caller threatened to make improvements to the outside of her house.
