Weird Police Stories: Peeping Tom At the Window, Smell of Pot, Campaign Sign Stealing and More Stupid Criminals

Click on the links to get details on each story 

1. A woman in unincorporated Stone Mountain had an unnerving experience with a Peeping Tom at her son's window. When she asked what the suspect was doing there, he repeatedly asked, "What are you wearing?" then tried to open the window. The victim called 911, but of course the suspect was gone by the time police arrived.

2. It’s campaign-sign-stealing season. A Johns Creek told police her Mitt Romney/Paul Ryan sign was taken from her yard. And not only that, another campaign sign was lifted from a nearby intersection. in the Five Points area of town. Athens-Clarke County Police also were told car-magnet signs for State House candidate Carter Kessler were stolen while campaigners were soliciting votes.

3. Perhaps not wanting to wait in line for an iPhone, a robber took three of them from a Norcross man who had advertised the phones on Craig’s List. The suspect responded to the ad, which offered the iPhones for $350 each, and agreed to meet the man in Lithonia. When the victim arrived, the suspect pulled out a handgun and stole the iPhones.

4. It was a “whiff of raw marijuana” that prompted Snellville Police officers to sniff out a pot-growing operation recently. The odor was so strong, according to the police report, that officers followed the pot scent a half-mile to a house where 21 pot plants were found, including some that were 6-feet tall. The street value was $25,000.

5. Gwinnett County cops have pretty powerful weed-detection abilities, too. A police officer reportedly smelled raw pot while on patrol in a trailer park. Inside one of the trailers, the officer found a large plastic bag with 10 smaller bags inside, all containing marijuana.

6. It’s usually the overlooked small details that get stupid criminals caught — like forgetting to turn the headlights on at 2 a.m. That’s when police in Athens stopped a Chevy Blazer leaving a business that had reported metal thefts in the past. , as was some marijuana. That might explain spacing out about the headlights.

7. A vandal used a different form of texting recently in the parking lot at the Mall of Georgia. A mall employee told Gwinnett County Police that when she reached her car after work, the words “Troll” and “LOL” were scratched into one of the doors. It’s probably safe to say the vandalism wasn’t committed by her BFF. 

8. Defending the honor of a girlfriend is one thing, but trying to avoid embarrassment in front of her is another. A Buford teen, 19, who suffered a knife wound in an altercation, told police that he had a good reason for getting in the face of his assailant. He didn’t want to be "punked out in front of his girlfriend." He and his girl were out for walk when three men approached. One of them asked, “What are you doing in my neighborhood?” Things escalated and ended with one of the men pulling out a knife. Result: a severe laceration to the victim’s right hand.

9. Smoke ‘em if you steal ‘em? Store surveillance video at a Buford-area pharmacy showed two suspects who may have been on a nicotine fit. They made off with 30 cartons of Marlboro cigarettes and 150 packs of Newports — a total value of $2,385.

10. In an act that probably will not end up on his resume, a man robbed a Norcross-area car wash after the owner told him there weren’t any job openings.

11. A Dacula man was arrested and accused of impersonating a police officer in a plot of revenge directed at a medical-clinic employee he believes prevented him from getting a prescription filled. The man, wearing a black T-shirt with “POLICE” on it, and driving a not-so-police-like Ford Mustang, presented a badge when he arrived at the clinic and started asking questions about the employee, a Buford woman. He apparently left flyers with her picture, name and “Have you seen this person?” printed on them. That prompted a call to Gwinnett County Police. The rest of the story: The man was a patient at the clinic in August, was prescribed medication and later tried to get it filled in South Carolina. But because it was prescribed in Georgia, the South Carolina pharmacist refused to fill it. He blamed the woman he targeted.

Stone Mountain-Lithonia Patch editor Leslie Johnson contributed to this article.

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