Chattanooga Pulse

• It’s an old truism that many people resort to a life of crime because they are just not smart enough to succeed on their own merits. That lack of intelligence is also what makes it a lot easier for investigators to solve crimes, as many criminals don’t do a very good job of covering their tracks…or even hiding the evidence of their crime.  A recent armed robbery in which a young man held up a group of people in their house and then fled to a waiting getaway car was solved when the mother of the getaway driver found a stolen wallet left in the car.  She dragged her son down to the police station—along with the wallet—and forced him to explain where the wallet came from. The end result was two arrests, and one very embarrassed young man.

• One of the more popular items stolen from vehicles are dash-mounted GPS systems. That is one reason why police urge those with GPS’s to never leave them in an unattended vehicle.  Yet many still do, especially those that drive professionally, such as taxi drivers.  Sometimes, though, it becomes a bit easier for officers to locate a “smash-and-grab” suspect when the criminal doesn’t consider his choice of attire:  like the young man who was spotted breaking into a cab wearing a black sweatsuit emblazoned with a large gold dragon. Once again, not thinking things through makes it much easier for law enforcement.

• Continuing with our theme these week of stupid criminals, we present the tale of an armed robber who apparently has never seen an episode of C.S.I.  Not 15 minutes after a man held up a Brainerd Road sandwich shop, he used one of the cell phones he had stolen from patrons to make a call to a woman.  To make matters even simpler for investigators, it turns out the suspect had been involved in a hit and run shortly before the robbery.  The restaurant manager had noticed damage to his vehicle, which led to the accident victim making a positive identification of the suspect.  When police then checked the cell phones, they were able to locate the woman called, who was able to confirm the armed robber had called her using the stolen phone.

• People get into disputes all the time. It’s an unfortunate fact of life.  There are literally dozens of police reports every week involving verbal altercations between people.  Yet it is a bit rarer to see a report where someone has been accused of making threats against a dog.  A woman who lives on South Moss Avenue called police claiming that her neighbor had been doing just that, and had escalated the situation by committing a drive-by.  Not a drive-by shooting, but a drive-by throwing of dog food.  One does have to wonder how this would intimidate the woman, especially since the dog in question most likely enjoyed the free snack.