Chattanooga Pulse

A weekly roundup of the newsworthy, notable and often head-scratching stories gleaned from police reports from the Chattanooga Police Department, the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office, the Bradley County Sheriff’s Department and the Dalton Police Department.

• It is often what is not included in a police report that makes the entire report more interesting. An Ooltewah-Georgetown Road resident came home around lunchtime last week, which apparently was a bit of a surprise to the young man who was inside the house.  Said young man was not supposed to be there, and in fact was interrupted while attempting to burgle the residence.  Where the report gets a bit more interesting is the part that reads the homeowner held the suspect there while dialing 911 and waiting for deputies to respond.  No word on exactly how he held the suspect, but whatever method he used obviously worked, as the young man was taken into custody by officers and then taken to jail.

• One of the things officers are taught during training is that the vast majority of criminals are engaged in more than one crime. A case in point happened last week in Bradley County when a tip about a marijuana-growing operation led directly to the recovery of several thousand dollars worth of stolen goods and two arrests.  Deputies served the marijuana search warrant on two brothers staying at a house on Red Clay Road, and during the course of questioning them, discovered a veritable cornucopia of stolen property.  The goods in question were apparently stolen from the father of the boys.  According to deputies, they also gave information about nearly 30 thefts from construction sites in the Ooltewah area.  A good day’s work for law enforcement.

• Though we thought everyone in the entire country would have realized this by now, we’d like to remind everyone that no, you cannot take a handgun on an airplane. We feel this reminder is necessary after a Dalton man was stopped trying to go through a security checkpoint at the Chattanooga Metropolitan Airport with a weapon in his carry-on bag.  TSA officials spotted the outline of the gun during routine x-rays, and when they searched the bag, found a Glock handgun along with nine rounds of ammunition.  The clueless gunslinger has been charged with violation of airport security and will go before General Sessions Court on November 4.

• Last month there was a lot of debate about police officers taking their cars home and using them for second jobs. Maybe some of the opponents of the policy will change their mind after an officer working a second job was able to make a traffic stop on a suspicious vehicle, leading to the arrest of three young men who had definitely been up to no good. Officer Brian Wood was working at Hamilton Place Mall when he was alerted to three suspicious men leaving the area.  He pulled them over in a nearby parking lot where, after spotting a handgun in the car, he was forced to taser one of the suspects who tried to fight him.  Recovered from the vehicle were a number of stolen items including cell phones, GPS units and prescription medication.  The three were arrested and are also being questioned about a string of recent auto burglaries in the area.