Inside the Police Reports: Those Darn Car Thieves

Each week, Lilburn Patch takes a deeper look into recent crime reports in the area, this week from both the Gwinnett Police Department.

-Broken Glass for No Apparent Reason: A 64-year-old North Carolina man was visiting his daughter on Pond Springs Trace near Oak Road when he noticed his back driver's side window busted at 8 a.m. one March morning. He told Gwinnett Police that he had parked it on the side of the road around 10 p.m. the night before, with the doors locked. Police noted that it didn't appear as if anyone searched or went through the car. None of the neighbors saw any suspicious activity, but the report notes that similar activity was reported in nearby neighborhoods.

-Lock Your Car Doors at Night: One day last week around 7:30 a.m., a woman was walking her dog near her residence on Hickory Drive off Five Forks-Trickum Road when she found credit and debit cards, and other documents on the ground, scattered around a large yellow wallet. She told Gwinnett Police that the name that appears on the card is her next door neighbor's, which must have been in her car since her neighbor said someone had entered her unlocked car the night before. She didn't believe anything was stolen or damaged, so she didn't call police. Police returned the items to the owner, who searched the vehicle again and noted that several things were actually missing, including a a bicycle, a DVD player and two pairs of shoes.

The crime believed to have occurred after the victim's husband went to sleep around 4 a.m. The report says that, in reference to speaking with another neighbor about the vehicle thefts in the area, someone was "suspiciously looking" inside other vehicles in the neighborhood around 6 a.m. that same day. The neighbor described the person as a white, dark-haired male around the age of 13 to 16 years old. The juvenile apparently also met with another white male at the top of the hill near Nutmeg Way.

The police officer noted in the report that, prior to his arrival at the scene, he noticed a young black male walking away from the scene. While looking unsuspicious, the juvenile was wearing similar clothing matching the description given by the neighbor.

-Crying Over Spilled Cereal: One evening in late January, a husband and wife had a slight brawl when it came to a bowl of cereal. As the husband was cooking dinner, the woman's two-year-old daughter asked if she could eat some cereal. Considering the girl had eaten a meal not too long ago, the woman began fixing her daughter a bowl of cereal, even though her husband wanted her to eat the dinner he had been cooking. The husband became upset and knocked the bowl of cereal out of the woman's hands just before she poured the milk in it. The glass shattered and the husband walked away, and the victim's sister, a witness to the scene, called police. The husband told police he was sorry that he lost his temper and that's he's never been physical before, but the victim told police that he's been abusive with her before and showed police two holes in the wall that were caused by his punches. The husband was arrested and transported to the Gwinnett County Jail for simple battery.