Police beat (11/25/09)

Among reports recently released by the Conway Police Department:

1. Leaving the scene of an injury accident at 300 block of Farris Road. Conway police responded at about 2 a.m. Saturday morning after a motorist reported seeing a motorcycle attempt to negotiate the corner at Farris Road and College Avenue when “the front wheel came off the ground and (a female passenger) fell off the back of the motorcycle.” When police arrived the passenger, a 24-year-old Conway woman, was found with non-life-threatening injuries at the side of the road. The operator had apparently fled the scene on foot and the motorcycle, a Yamaha R-6, was on its side leaking oil from a broken crankcase. Police found reason to believe that the operator, later identified as 30-year-old Thaddeus C. Pittman of 1253 Hunter St., Conway, was headed on foot to a nearby restaurant, and arrested him there after observing cuts and scrapes on his face and motor oil on his pants leg. He was arrested on suspicion of leaving the scene of an injury accident, first-offense DWI, reckless driving and refusal to submit to a chemical test. His passenger was treated and released at Conway Regional.

2. Endangering the welfare of a minor at 2100 block of Dave Ward Drive. Officers responded at about 6:40 p.m. Thursday after a citizen reported finding a 2-year-old girl wrapped in a blanket and carrying a stuffed bear wandering unattended near the intersection of Dave Ward Drive and South Donaghey Avenue. The child was secured by police, and an Arkansas Department of Human Services agent arrived to take custody. At about 9:40 p.m. on that day the child’s mother called CPD dispatch, and the officers were sent to her. The mother told the officers that the child was left in the care of her sister, who had fallen asleep and allowed the child to wander out of a residence. The sister told police that she didn’t call police after waking to find the child gone at about 8:45 because she thought the child was possibly with her mother’s roommate. The sister, a 30-year-old Conway woman, was arrested on suspicion of endangering the welfare of a minor in the third-degree

3. Criminal mischief at 400 block of East Robins Street. An officer responded near midnight Thursday to reports that a suspect described as a slender black male wearing all-black clothing had tried to set fire to the back steps of a mobile home community business office. The officer arrived and extinguished a small puddle of flaming liquid that he suspected to be lighter fluid. The suspect was not located.

4. Criminal Mischief at 500 and 600 block of East German Lane. An officer was dispatched late Sunday night to reports of a vandal described as a white male with blond hair wearing a gray “hoodie” sweatshirt and a black ball cap smashing the windows of one residence with bricks and throwing a gas grill and two trees rooted in heavy planters in the swimming pool of another residence, along with a shovel.

5. Residential burglary at 600 block of South Mitchell Street. Victim reported on Nov. 17 that he had gone outside his home after hearing a car alarm go off in his garage to see a white sedan speeding away. The man reported that five pairs of Nike sneakers, including one described in the report as “a special edition pair from China worth $4,000,” along with two other pairs of shoes, two packs of Chinese cigarettes and 10 $1 gold pieces. The “special edition” sneakers are described as “having the symbol of two lightning bolts in a circle on the outside heel of each shoe.”

6. Residential burglary at 400 block of Second Street. Victim reported on Friday afternoon that someone had entered his apartment, which the victim said had been unintentionally left unlocked, and had stolen a 42-inch LG flat screen TV. In obtaining further evidence police found that a subject described in the report as an Asian man had carried a large flat-screen TV to a small black car with out-of-state, possibly Texas, tags.

7. Motor vehicle theft at 10 block of Azalea Loop. Victim reported that at some point between 8 p.m. on Friday and 6 a.m. on Saturday someone had stolen a gray 2007 Pontiac G6 sedan. 

8. Shoplifting at 3900 Dave Ward Drive (Walmart). Walmart loss prevention contacted Conway police and reported that a 14-year-old and a 16-year-old had each drank a bottle of cough syrup in a rest room. The teens “appeared to be acting normally and showed no sign of medical problems,” according to the report, and so were cited for theft of property and released to their parents, who were advised to “keep a close eye on them” as they had ingested an inadvisable amount of the medicine.

(Those with information pertaining to these reports or any unsolved crime are urged to contact the Conway Police Department at 450-6120. Staff writer Joe Lamb can be reached at 505-1238.)