OMG PD: Armed Robber Learns Quickly

We compile the odd, unusual and ‘oh my gosh’ police items from throughout the region.

·                                 By Scott Pickering

Robbery Suspect

A North Kingstown criminal who failed in his first attempted robbery apparently learned quickly, improved his tactics and succeeded an hour later in a second convenience store. The man walked into one convenience store wearing a hooded sweatshirt, ski mask and gloves and demanded money in the cash register – but showed no weapon. The clerk, after asking the suspect if he was "kidding," refused to empty the register. About an hour later, the man walked into a second convenience store – but this time he flashed a box cutter. This clerk complied, and the man ran out with about $200 in cash. Police released a video and audio clip of the attempted robbery and asked the public for help in finding the armed robber.

‘I am drunk, I’m guilty’
A 26-year-old man from Vineyard Haven, MA, was lucky not to have killed someone before he wasarrested for drunk driving in Middletown. According to an officer’s report, the man’s car swerved not only across his own lanes, but across two lanes in the opposite direction, so his tires were on the curb in the wrong lane of travel. One car swerved to avoid a head-on collision, before the officer, who was one car behind, pulled over the 26-year-old. When asked if he knew he’d almost hit another car, the driver allegedly said: “Officer, I am drunk, I’m guilty, I know.” He then bombed a field sobriety test and allegedly blew .243 on a chemical breath test.

‘Staring’ leads to stabbing
A 35-year-old Warren man has a short fuse that landed him in jail on a felony stabbing charge. According to the victim’s account, the two men got into an argument after the assailant accused the victim of staring at him while the two were on the East Bay Bike Path. The victim went home and came back outside about a half-hour later, when the 35-year-old allegedly rode up in a bike and stabbed him in the stomach, again on the bike path. The injured man walked to the nearby fire station to report what had happened, and police arrested the assailant later that afternoon.

The ‘everyone else is driving the wrong way’ defense
A 62-year-old Charlestown woman blamed her erratic driving on everyone else after South Kingstown police officers caught up to her and her black Mini Cooper. Officers first received calls from other motorists reporting a car driving south in the northbound lane of Matunuck Beach Road at about 8:30 at night. They soon found the car stopped on the northbound shoulder of the road, facing south. When asked about driving on the wrong side of the highway, the woman allegedly said: “I don’t believe that. All of those people were coming at me!” She allegedly failed a field sobriety test and they arrested her. They also took her dog, which was riding shotgun, to an animal shelter for the night.

Things that make you go ‘hmmm …’
Employees at an East Greenwich Gold’s Gym called police after a man took advantage of a free trial membership, acted strangely for the 90 minutes he was there and wore a full snowsuit throughout his workout.

Driver allegedly ‘stages’ National Grid accident
Witnesses and police officers claim a 60-year-old Warwick man deliberately created an accident in Cranston by driving his Ford Explorer in front of a National Grid truck, slamming on his brakes and getting rear-ended by the utility truck. The man told police he had stopped short because of a black cat crossing the road, but multiple witnesses said there was no cat and one person told police she saw the man “stage the whole thing.” She said she saw him tense up and that he appeared to “brace himself for impact before he slammed on the brakes.” He was charged with reckless driving.

With friends like these …
A 50-year-old Woonsocket man apparently borrowed a female friend’s car, did not return it for weeks and then drove away from an accident after he hit a parked Infiniti in front of a local bar. A witness saw the accident and reported the fleeing car’s license plate number, which led to the woman. She came in to the station to say it wasn’t her, it was the friend who borrowed the car and never returned it. When police tracked him down, he said the woman’s car had been damaged when someone else hit him and pushed him into a telephone pole – an accident he never reported. Police arrested him for driving without a license and failure to meet his duty on a collision.

Facebook post ‘violates rules of Muslim religion’
A 38-year-old Woonsocket man was arrested for domestic assault after he allegedly punched and bit his girlfriend in the face over a post she had made on Facebook. He claimed the post violated the rules of the Muslim religion. Police were familiar with the residence because they had visited the home for a narcotics arrest earlier this year. Both the victim and her attacker had medical marijuana cards and grew the drug inside the home. The victim told officers that her boyfriend also sells at the street level for profit.