July 13

1:49 a.m. A 14-year-old boy told police that he sent vulnerable photos of himself to a girl he met online. She told him that she would share the images publicly unless he gave her money. Officers told the boy he had been scammed and that he should not send money to the “girl,” who might not even be a girl.

8:09 a.m. A 17-year-old driver turned left from Balderson Drive onto Long Road and struck another vehicle. Police cited him for the accident and for driving without a license. Officers also cited his mother for allowing someone without a license to drive her car.

11:54 a.m. After hitting another vehicle on Hill Road near Creekside Lane, a 33-year-old Pataskala woman was cited for not staying in her own lane and driving on a temporary permit.

1:35 p.m. On June 19, a Pickerington couple received a phone call from “Mark with Huntington Bank” regarding suspicious activity on their card. For several hours, Mark helped the couple protect their account by enabling text verification for their usernames and passwords. Mark’s calls kept dropping, but he always phoned back from a number that caller ID recognized as “Huntington Bank.”

On June 22, the husband contacted Huntington Bank because he still had not received their replacement ATM cards. When customer service informed him that there was no record of either a fraud case or the issuance of new cards, the couple made an appointment with the Pickerington branch.

The Pickerington manager told the couple that they had been scammed and that, by enabling the text verification, the suspect could move through all their accounts without further identification checks. All told, “Mark” stole nearly $30,000.

7:07 p.m. Two women walked out of Cracker Barrel without paying for $300 worth of merchandise. Half an hour later, the same suspects allegedly ran out the back door of DSW with $650 worth of merchandise.

8:44 p.m. A maintenance worker at the Meadows Apartments allegedly recorded a 54-year-old resident peeking into his neighbor’s windows. However, due to the video quality, the officer could not determine if the suspect had been peeking.

When police confronted the suspect, the man moved in such a way that his shirt raised and exposed his genitalia, which hung above his waistband. The suspect explained that he was not wearing underwear and that his shorts kept falling. He also said that he was supposed to help his neighbor install a toilet seat, but she wasn’t answering the door, so he looked through her windows to see if she was home.

The man told police that since he and his wife moved into the apartment, they have had issues with the maintenance man. They reported that he does poor work and seems set on getting them evicted. (see 11:12am, July 16, 2026),

9:31 p.m. After witnessing a Ford Edge weaving across lanes of Diley Road and tailgating another car, an officer initiated a traffic stop. The driver, a 39-year-old Pickerington man, denied having anything to drink and explained that he was just grabbing some KFC. Based on the results of a field sobriety test, the officer arrested him for operating a vehicle while intoxicated. Back at the police station, the driver blew a 0.151 BAC. The legal limit in Ohio is 0.08 BAC.

July 14

1:41 a.m. After clocking a Ford Crown Victoria traveling 63 mph in the 45-mph zone of Diley Road, an officer initiated a traffic stop. As the car pulled over, an alert came across the radio that a vehicle matching its description had just fled Sheetz.

Allegedly, the group — a 17-year-old female driver and three teenage boys — had attempted to purchase $35 worth of food using a Cash App that only had $5 in its account. They caused a disturbance and refused to leave without their order until right before police arrived. The manager did not file charges.

At the traffic stop, the officer charged the driver with speeding and cited a 17-year-old boy for lying about his identity. The boy was wanted in Florida for stealing a car, but the warrant listed him as “in-state pick-up only.” All four teens were warned that they were violating curfew and needed to go straight home.

6:33 a.m. Overnight, unknown individuals broke into six vehicles at the Comfort Inn.

7:39 a.m. Police were called to Pickerington Village on a report of a small girl wandering alone without shoes. As an officer spoke with the caller and the child, a woman arrived who claimed to be friends with the girl’s family. She explained that a few days ago, the mother had started a new job and had arranged for a neighbor to watch her children. To enable the girl to sleep in, the mother told the 4-year-old to walk next door to the babysitter’s house when she woke.

Officers called the babysitter and both parents. The father said that he assumed that the girl had gone to the sitter’s with her baby sibling that morning and did not know of the mother’s plan. Police warned the parents that if the child was found wandering again, they would be charged with child endangerment.

5:46 p.m. A traveler from Texas reported that someone broke into his car at the Comfort Inn and stole a bag containing $500 in cash and multiple cards.

July 15

4:58 p.m. A vehicle was hit while parked in the Planet Fitness lot, but the culprit did not leave a note.

9:26 p.m. After an officer stopped her on Tussing Road near Winderly Lane for an expired registration, a 28-year-old Pickerington woman was arrested on a warrant out of Knox County.

July 16

8:39 a.m. A home security camera recorded a vehicle hitting a parked car in Willow Pond.

11:12 a.m. Police returned (see 8:44pm, July 13, 2026) to the Meadows Apartments on a report that the alleged voyeuristic resident threatened to “smoke” the “punk bitch” maintenance man. Officers provided instructions for obtaining a protection order to the maintenance man, but he declined. He stated that he had previously worked in Whitehall, so he was accustomed to these types of situations and had once shot someone during a similar incident. He owned 72 guns and said he would protect himself.

The resident told police that when he took his garbage out that morning, the maintenance man yelled at him and called him a “racist.” He denied responding with threats.

12:21 p.m. After visiting the McDonald’s drive-thru, a 64-year-old Etna man turned into the Get Air lot to eat his lunch. He did not see a Ford Escape driven by a 22-year-old Pickerington woman, and his Ram 2500 struck the Ford’s driver-side door. Without turning off the engine or placing the vehicle in park, the woman exited through her passenger door and watched as her car rolled into a parked Hyundai Sonata.

4:01 p.m. An officer conducted a traffic stop on a Nissan Murano after clocking it traveling at 44 mph in the 25-mph zone of Hill Road. As the driver, a 71-year-old Columbus man, handed over his driver’s license, the officer caught a whiff of alcohol and asked him to step out of the car.

After a field sobriety test, the man was arrested for driving while intoxicated. Asked how much alcohol he had consumed, the suspect reportedly answered that he had two beers at 5 p.m. The officer told the man that the time was currently 4:20 p.m. At the station, the suspect blew a 0.192 BAC.

6:02 p.m. Dispatchers received a report of an impaired driver traveling northbound on Hill Road in a Honda Pilot. Officers caught up to the vehicle in the Donato’s parking lot, where it had jumped the curb and come to rest in the grass. When they asked the driver, a 79-year-old Pickerington man, to exit the car and take a field sobriety test, the man allegedly responded, “I’m screwed.” Police began with the horizontal gaze test, in which the subject is asked to follow the movements of an officer’s finger with their eyes while their head remains still. The instructions reportedly frustrated the suspect, who said, “Guys, you know I’m drunk.” He was arrested and brought to the police station, where he blew a 0.155 BAC.

6:35 p.m. Police removed a 45-year-old Canal Winchester man from the Embassy of Pickerington for throwing items at staff members and hitting a nurse. The man was visiting with his brother, who is a patient, when he became angry. This was reportedly not the first time that he had been removed from the premises.

11:17 p.m. Staff at the Wendy’s near the interstate told dispatch that a man in a Honda Passport had been sleeping in their drive-thru for nearly 10 minutes and they could not wake him. Police arrived and successfully roused the driver, a 42-year-old Reynoldsburg man who reportedly smelled of alcohol. They instructed him to shift into park and then exit the vehicle. After a field sobriety test, the suspect was arrested for operating a vehicle while intoxicated. Back at the station, he provided a urine sample, but the results were still pending.

July 17

9:54 a.m. A 30-year-old Pickerington man told police that he had been working for a few months mailing packages for a company called “Trans Novia.” He found the job online. In early July, the company promoted him to the position of purchasing agent, in which he would buy items on behalf of his clients.

On July 8, his supervisors provided him with a Bank United account and instructed him to move $5,000 from that account into his personal checking account. After the $5,000 was posted, he purchased an item from Best Buy costing $4,900. Trans Novia then sent him a label to ship the item to an address in Brooklyn, New York.

Two days later, Trans Novia asked him to transfer $4,000 from the Bank United account into his personal checking account. Again, he made a purchase as instructed and shipped the item to the same Brooklyn address.

On July 15, the Pickerington man checked his credit card statement and discovered that both transfers into his personal account had been cancelled, leaving him out $9,000 that he had spent on the items shipped to New York. He also discovered that he could no longer access the company website, Transovia-dash.com, and the company’s telephone number was no longer in service.

It is important to note that there are two legitimate companies with similar names — Transavia and TransNova. Neither of these companies was involved in the scam.

10:33 a.m. A 73-year-old Pickerington man told police that he received a phone call from an individual claiming to represent the Huntington Bank fraud department. The man provided the caller with his account information, which the caller used to withdraw nearly $5,000. When he realized that he had been scammed, the man froze his credit and called police.

12:00 p.m. Over the course of several days, a woman using a stolen identity withdrew more than $18,000 from various Kemba Credit Unions before trying to withdraw $2,000 from the Pickerington branch. Unsuccessful, the suspect tried the Reynoldsburg Kemba. Staff there reported that she left on foot in the direction of Sonic and Columbus police arrested her.

1:06 p.m. On July 13, surveillance recorded a man stealing two KitchenAid mixers valued at $500 each from Kohl’s. The suspect is also wanted for reportedly shoplifting mixers from other Kohl’s locations.

3:52 p.m. Two suspects left Local Cantina without paying their $80 bill.

5:38 p.m. A 26-year-old Columbus woman told police that her package, valued at $130, had been stolen from the mail.

10:53 p.m. Police detained and questioned three suspects who had driven to United Dairy Farmers in two U-Hauls loaded with large fuel containers, which they were filling at the pumps. A few days prior, the same suspects had filled their containers at the store, and authorities later discovered that they had paid using stolen credit card numbers. Inside each U-Haul, officers discovered containers holding a total of 50 gallons of diesel.

July 18

10:59 a.m. A 90-year-old Pickerington woman told police that a 36-year-old Reynoldsburg woman had charged more than $6,000 to her credit cards.

July 19

1:24 a.m. After a traffic stop on Long Road near George’s Creek Drive, police cited a 27-year-old Canal Winchester man with a marked-lanes violation and driving without a license.

Pickerington Police July 6-12, 2026