February 4
12:00 am A 64-year-old Columbus man was arrested after police allegedly found him asleep behind the wheel of a Hyundai Tiburon parked at the Turnberry Shopping Center. The vehicle bore a fictitious tag and the driver was wanted on a warrant out of Lancaster.
1:22 am Police tried to pull over a Cadillac XTC for driving 55 mph in the 35-mph zone of Hill Road near the PYAA complex, but the driver continued onward at the same pace. The officer followed the vehicle until it stopped at a home in the Spring Grove neighborhood.
The 56-year-old driver told the officers that she saw the lights and heard the sirens but was afraid to stop.
2:22 am An officer patrolling Long Street west of Peace United Methodist Church, tried to pull over a Hyundai Elantra for no license plate light. The vehicle sped up and fled toward Gender Road.
The officer phoned the owner of the car to ask her who was driving. The owner, a 40-year-old Columbus woman, told the officer that she had just discovered that the vehicle had been stolen.
11:56 am Police were called to the Lake’s Edge Apartments on a report that someone had broken into a Hyundai Tucson. Items were missing and there was damage to the steering column and ignition.
February 5
12:29 am A 52-year-old Canal Winchester man was arrested after police allegedly discovered him in a disabled vehicle at BP with drugs.
7:38 am A Columbus woman without a driver’s license was cited after the Lexus that she was driving allegedly rear-ended a Toyota Rav 4 that was stopped on the Interstate 70 exit ramp onto Hill Road.
4:44 pm A woman in Willow Pond reported that two males (18-year-old from Columbus, “A”, and a 16-year-old from Pickerington, “B”) had come to her home looking for her 16-year-old son “C”. They allegedly told her that her son owed them $150 for drugs.
The son allegedly told police that in early January he had received four “carts” from “A” whom he had met at Pickerington High School Central. (“Carts” or THC vape cartridges are glass containers holding half a gram or more of cannabis oil. – LivWell.com) The deal was that “C” would sell the cartridges for $45 a piece then pay “B”.
When the officer allegedly questioned “C” as to why he owed “B” $150 when $45 multiplied by four would equal $180. “C” did not answer.
When asked what “C” had done with the carts, the boy allegedly replied that he gave them to a “light-skinned kid” at Central, but that he did not know the student’s name.
The interaction at the Willow Ponds address was captured on a doorbell camera.
9:24 pm A 21-year-old Columbus man turned himself in at the Pickerington Police Department for a felony strangulation warrant out of Columbus.
February 6
12:17 am A group of five or six juveniles traveling in what may have been a black Kia Soul, allegedly rummaged through ten vehicles parked in neighborhoods along Long Road west of Diley including George’s Creek and the Homestead. An unknown tool was used to smash windows.
3:48 am The clerk at Speedway reported that a man in the store had said rude things to her then exposed himself. She believed that he may have also stolen items and knocked over bottles of windshield washer fluid.
12:07 pm A 25-year-old Canal Winchester man turned himself in at the Pickerington Police Department for a misdemeanor warrant out of Columbus.
4:49 pm Reynoldsburg couple (85-year-old man and 74-year-old woman) reported that two men and a woman wearing masks took their keys and stole their newly-purchased Hyundai. This happened at one of the senior parking spaces in front of the Marcus Theater. The woman said that her purse was still in the vehicle.
February 8
11:38 am A Chevrolet Cruze was pulled over on Diley Road near Fox Glen West for allegedly driving 61 mph in a 45-mph zone. She did not have a valid driver’s license.
11:50 am Police received a call from the driver of a tan GMC Terrain, that her vehicle had been hit by a white Nissan Altima as she was preparing to turn right onto Cross Creeks Drive from Hill Road. She said that the Nissan merged into her lane and hit her vehicle. The Nissan did not stop, but the GMC driver snapped a photo of the license plate.
Police contacted the Nissan’s owner, who explained that her 16-year-old daughter had the car. The police then spoke with the daughter, who said that her boyfriend had been driving but that she would not name him on account of his multiple warrants.
9:01 pm A Chevrolet Captiva was pulled over on Long Road near the Homestead for allegedly driving 49 mph in a 35-mph zone. The driver, a 46-year-old Canal Winchester man, did not have a license. He was also wanted on a charge of marijuana possession out of Alabama. The Calhoun County Sheriff’s Office said that they did want to extradite, therefore the man was taken to the Fairfield County Jail.
10:23 pm A 47-year-old Columbus man denied medical help after he was allegedly found on the floor of Twins Tavern after a night of drinking. He was transported to the Fairfield County Jail.
February 9
1:54 am A couple were pulled over on Long Road near Longview Highlands because the license plate was allegedly not visible on the Hyundai sedan they were driving. Neither one had a drivers license and the driver, a 26-year-old Columbus woman, was wanted on a warrant out of Reynoldsburg.
11:40 am A young boy near Sycamore Creek Elementary waved to an officer for help in catching a stray Shih Tzu. The dog did not appear to be aggressive, but he bit the officer in the hand when the officer picked lifted him.
The officer placed the dog in the back of his cruiser then drove back to the Pickerington Police Station where Fairfield County Animal Control took custody. Despite the dog having no tags, the police found his owner, a 33-year-old resident of the Sycamore Creek neighborhood. She was told that because her dog had bitten someone, she would not be able to claim him from Animal Control for 10 days.
Because the officer’s hand had been punctured on both sides and would not stop bleeding, he required treatment at Ohio Health Pickerington.
4:52 pm A 71-year-old Pickerington woman told police that she had fallen victim to a phone scam. She said that a man, who called himself “Anthony”, had contacted her from different phone numbers asking for her help providing deployed service members with cellphones.
Allegedly, “Anthony” told her that if she bought phones and shipped them to Maryland, he would transfer the service contracts to his account, and pay her $8,000.
When the woman went to Best Buy to purchase more phones, an associate told her that she was being scammed. She then contacted Verizon to cancel the accounts. She approximated that she lost $20,000 in total.
