Blotter: Bad Friends, A Missing Ring and a Misplaced Car

Thefts

• On Sept. 27, Carlson Leasing reported that someone stole wheels off a 2007 Chevrolet Suburban and a 2011 Chevrolet Tahoe. The wheels were worth $2,500 total.
• A 38-year-old Richfield man reported that someone stole a 1996 Honda Civic, license plate VZG-411, between 12:15 p.m. and 12:45 p.m. Sept. 27 from outside an apartment complex on the 11000 block of Anderson Lakes Parkway. The man was visiting his children. A neighbor said he saw a skinny Somali man between 20 and 21 years old get in the car and drive away.
• A JC Penny loss prevention employee saw a 37-year-old woman take 12 shirts from a display, go into a fitting room and leave without any shirts at 2:30 p.m. Sep. 28. There was only one shirt in the fitting room when the loss prevention employee checked. The employee placed the woman under a citizen’s arrest. Officers ticketed her for shoplifting after $470 worth of clothing were found on her.
• A 33-year-old Clearwater woman said someone stole a gold ring with ½ carat’s worth of diamonds, valued at $1,200. She was staying at the Courtyard by Marriott. Her husband put the ring and a bracelet in the side pocket of a duffle bag when they went to the pool with friends. When she checked for it later, the ring was gone. A guest was the only one who had access to the room. They said he had stolen before and went looking for him, eventually locating him by Wedding Day Diamonds waiting for the store to open. He denied taking the ring when they confronted him and said he was at the jewelers to have his wife’s ring resized. They drove him to the Police Department. A ring was found under the floor mat of the passenger seat, but it was the man’s mother’s ring, not the victim’s. Officers allowed the man to leave and are watching pawnshops.
• A 32-year-old Eden Prairie man told police on Oct. 1 that someone stole his 2004 Pontiac. He said he left the car in his apartment parking lot after leaving Taco Bell at 8 p.m. Sept. 30. He called police the following day to tell them that he forgot he parked the car in a detached garage.

Burglary

• A 29-year-old Duck Lake Trail resident told police that someone stole Volkswagen and toolbox keys sometime between midnight and 6:30 p.m. Sept. 26. He’d left the keys on top of a toolbox in his garage, and the key ring was still there.
• A 46-year-old Eden Prairie man reported that someone stole a black metal Airsoft gun, six soft-tip arrows, a yellow youth compound bow and a green compound bow worth $312 total. He thinks someone entered his garage through an unlocked side door sometime between Sept. 23 and Sept. 29. He added that they may have been friends of his 13-year-old son because there was an altercation over the Airsoft gun.