Best of the Blotter

Officer Threatened & Nude High-Speed Chase: Best of the Blotter

The most bizarre police reports from departments throughout Northeast Ohio.

It seems there's no alleged crime too bizarre to occur in Northeast Ohio. Here are some of this week's weird calls and charges. All information was provided by police reports from departments in Patch communities. Threatening Words: Though an Akron man returned the clothing he tried to steal from Walmart, he still ended up in a Fairlawn Police cruiser. He also had some threatening words for the arresting officer. Derek Sampson, 50, tried to walk out of Walmart in Fairlawn on May 13 with three pairs of shorts. When a security officer confronted him, Sampson returned the items. Officers arrested him for theft when he tried to exit again. Once in the cruiser, Sampson told the officer, "You're a dead man … I don't talk to dead men." Read more …

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Brandon Baker

11:28 am on Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Thanks for your feedback, Paul. At this point, we haven't decided to rank the weird news, but that is definitely a possibility in upcoming posts.   more ›

Best of the Blotter

Naked Man, Pink Purse & Concealed Drugs: Best of the Blotter

The week's strangest police reports from departments throughout Northeast Ohio.

There's no shortage of bizarre police calls and charges in Northeast Ohio. We'll gather the zaniest of the region each Sunday in this Best of the Blotter column. All information was provided by police reports from departments in Patch communities. Questioned in the Nude: Twinsburg Police didn't learn much about a stolen-money accusation on May 3, but they were exposed to a naked man. The unexpected showing occurred during officers' second trip to the Warren Parkway residence that day. Police came earlier because a woman was screaming for help outside. She was being chased by the naked man's roommate, who believed the woman had stolen $1,000 from the apartment. When police returned with questions, the garment-free man said no one had taken …

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Police in Strongsville, Fairlawn Investigating Second ATM Theft

Machine stolen from Summit Mall three weeks after similar incident at Westfield SouthPark

Police in Strongsville and Fairlawn are looking into whether the theft of an ATM from Summit Mall Dec. 20 is related to a similar theft from Westfield SouthPark the night of Dec. 1. In both cases, thieves carried ATMs out of the malls sometime during the night, tripping no alarms and using no force to get in or out of the buildings. Strongsville Detective Lt. John Janowski said the ATM taken from SouthPark was recovered a couple weeks later on Cleveland's west side. The amount of money missing from inside the machine is not being disclosed. Fairlawn Police said the Bank of America automated teller machine taken from Summit Mall contained $113,000. Fairlawn Detective Dave Zampelli said the theft was noticed at about 2:40 a.m. A bright red …

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