Every day, police officers respond to reports of all sorts of events and nonevents, most of which never make the news. Here is a sampling of lesser-known — but no less noteworthy — incidents from police log books (a.k.a. blotters) in our suburbs.
SHEAR MADNESS
Just after noon April 19, a caller told Acton police a woman was walking on Great Road wearing thigh-high stockings and a thong and carrying a pair of garden shears. The scantily clad pedestrian made her way across the town line into Littleton, where, police say, she soon announced her presence by entering the lot of a car dealership and scratching vehicles with the shears. Officers arrived, and she was taken to a hospital to undergo a psychiatric evaluation.
WHO WAS THAT MASKED UPSTAIRS NEIGHBOR?
On the evening of April 22, a woman called Lexington police to report that several “crazed raccoons’’ were somehow falling through the ceiling into her home. The animals had apparently made themselves very much at home in the woman’s attic. Police responded and an officer removed one of the creatures from the residence.
DOGGONE IT
Speaking of animals popping up in the oddest places, it was a pet that did so in Franklin May 2. Just after 5 p.m. that day, animal control officer George Potter was sent to a home on Wilson Road where a dog had taken a perch on a roof and refused to come down. “The dog pushed out a screen and climbed onto the roof,’’ said Lieutenant Mark Manocchio. “He was not very friendly.’’ Potter went up onto the roof and fed the dog cookies to establish rapport, then threw a cookie through the window. The ruse worked: The dog followed the cookie inside, and Potter closed the window.
ODD THEFTS
Raynham police are looking for a man who they say has been stealing blood sugar test strips from a Walmart store there. Police say the man made trips to the store March 24 and April 5 and took off with $633.32 worth of testing strips. Police say he has a key that he used to unlock the security case. Images of the suspect, who appeared to be smiling broadly as he exited the premises, can be seen online at MassMostWanted.org. Another odd instance of alleged shoplifting occurred April 16, police say, when a man stole approximately $1,700 worth of paint tubes from an A.C. Moore arts supply store in Dedham. A photo of the suspect, taken from a store security camera, can be seen at MassMostWanted.org.
WHAT’S WORSE THAN HAVING YOUR CAR STOLEN? PROBABLY THIS
At 1:58 p.m. May 4, Bridgewater police received a 911 call from a man on Summit Drive who reported his vehicle had been stolen. For officers, this was an easy case to crack, but the cash-strapped man could not have been too pleased by what they told him: The car had been repossessed.
ONE HARDCORE ATHLETE
At 3:07 p.m. April 29, Peabody police received a report of a suspicious person wearing a mask and running in the area of Pine and Johnson streets. It was all true, the responding officer soon discovered, but for the suspicious part: The runner was simply using a breathing mask for training purposes.
MONKEY MISCHIEF
Remember playing with sock monkeys when you were little, those hand-stitched stuffed animals made out of socks? For one Quincy woman, flashing back to such memories was anything but pleasant April 23 when she found such a plaything covered in fake blood on her front steps. The door, too, was splattered with fake blood. Police documented the incident and filed a report.
UM, IT’S NOT A WALK-THROUGH
Just before 1 a.m. May 1, Salem police responded to the Wendy’s on Lafayette Street, told that a man on foot was mingling with motorists in the drive-through lane. Police advised the man that the drive-through was reserved for vehicles only, and asked him to step away from the window so other people could order. After a few minutes, a Wendy’s employee came out and handed him his Number 6 with bacon and fruit punch, and he was sent on his way. Police asked the restaurant staff not to take walk-up orders in the future.
Emily Sweeney can be reached at esweeney@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @emilysweeney.
