From STAFF REPORTS
CORDELE — Christmas gift “shoppers” victimized a local resident during a Saturday afternoon burglary now under investigation by Cordele Police Department officers.
The victim, who resides in the 1000 block of 29th Ave. E., told Cpl. Bruce Gourley several yule presents were removed from underneath the Christmas tree while she was briefly away from home.
A window in a storage shed in the rear of the residence was also broken but nothing appeared to be missing from it.
In other police department activity on Saturday and Sunday, officers:
Investigated an armed robbery attempt at an apartment in the 300 block of 15th Ave. W.
Cpl. Christina Martinez said she was called to that location when one of three men there reported they were watching a football game on TV when a trio of black males wearing hoods over their heads burst into the dwelling and demanded money.
One of the three was armed with a black pistol that he waved at the victims before shouting, “Give it to me” and then throwing a radio at the complainant. Another of the guests at the home chased the trio of would-be robbers from the home forcing them to flee empty-handed.
— Responded to a 7:55 p.m. Sunday burglary alarm from a home in the 600 block of 17th Ave. E. where Sgt. Charles Dennard and Officer Chris Forysth said windows were found broken in the kitchen and living room.
The home owner said a surveillance camera system he has had installed following four previous break-ins showed two black males traveling in an unknown type vehicle stopped in the alley, approached the house they never entered and then left.
The complainant called police back at 1:30 a.m. Monday to report he had been riding around looking for the suspects and had located one of them who confessed to his part in the incident. Because he felt sorry for the subject, the victim declined to prosecute.
— Said thieves struck twice while using the contents of automobiles as their target.
A relative of a resident in the 100 block of Fourth St. S. told Cpl. Christina Martinez that someone entered her unlocked vehicle while she was inside her daughter’s home and stole her pink purse containing $300 in cash, her driver’s license and other personal papers, a checkbook, an Enmark gift card and a small bag containing jewelry.
Capt. Tommy Jackson, meanwhile, went to the 800 block of 22nd Ave. W. shortly after 3 a.m. Monday when an electrical shortage started a fire believed to have been caused by wires that were cut during a radio/DVD/TV theft from the vehicle.
Damage to the vehicle was contained to the front dash area where the front windshield had burst from the heat . The rear window had previously been smashed to allow the culprits entry to the car.
— Received a stalking complaint that led PFC David Haas to request that a warrant for that offense be issued against a man who allegedly continues to harass his soon to be ex-wife and her current beau.
In the latest incidents, the offender allegedly approached his former mate’s boyfriend at a car wash and taunted him in an effort to start an altercation and also pulled alongside a car occupied by his ex-wife and her daughter and made sure he was seen.
— Probed a vandalism report.
An employee of World Finance Company located at 408 16th Ave. E., told Pvt. Erica Cromer that sometime Friday night or early Saturday morning a window was broken in a 1986 GMC pickup that had been recently repossessed and resold.
