Police Blotter

Scorpions tune alerts police

Police on bicycle patrol near a Mount Pleasant apartment complex were drawn to an apparently intoxicated man because they heard the Scorpions tune "Rock you Like a Hurricane" playing loudly from a car stereo. When police neared the car, they saw a man lying across the front seat, according to the report.

Police knocked on the window and the 23-year-old man sat up and started looking around. When he opened the door, the smell of alcohol wafted toward police and the man reportedly said, "I'm good. I'm leaving."

Police asked him where he was.

He said, "Downtown."

When police told him he was wrong, he said, "Oh, we are in Mount Pleasant."

The 23-year-old man said he went into his car to sober up because he drank four mixed drinks in a short period of time. He was arrested on a charge of public intoxication, according to the report.

Foam footprints follow fire alarm

The released contents of a fire extinguisher in a Mount Pleasant movie theater led to its evacuation and an arrest of a Charleston man.

On Nov. 8, moviegoers had to leave the theater when a fire alarm sounded. There was no fire. The alarm was triggered because someone had emptied the contents of a fire extinguisher in one of the men's restrooms.

Police followed the footprints in the powder foam outside and looked through the crowd. Police went into a nearby bookstore, where they found a 24-year-old man in flip-flops speckled with a white powder, according to the police report.

Police asked the man about the powder on his shoes. The man said that he was in the bathroom stall when the powder just started coming under the wall and coated his feet, a report states.

Police reviewed the bathroom surveillance tape and identified the man as the 24-year-old in the bookstore.

Police read him his rights and the man admitted to using the extinguisher, reports say. He also reportedly took five books out of his shorts saying that he planned to take them from the store.

Because of the health risks associated with the extinguisher contents, the theater had to remain closed until it was cleaned. The theater's manager said it lost about $7,000 in ticket refunds.

The 24-year-old man was charged with malicious injury greater than $5,000 and shoplifting.

No charges for driving naked

A man who was stopped by police after a hit-and-run accident told them he was driving naked so he didn't blotch his spray tan, reports say.

On Nov. 4, witnesses told police that a car driven by a naked man struck a pole outside a U.S. Highway 17 business and that the man had driven off. Mount Pleasant police traced the car's license plate to a Mount Pleasant address and stopped a man as he entered the subdivision.

The 67-year-old driver told police that he had been drinking and said he drove from the scene because he knew the owner of the business and was going to talk about the damages the following day.

Witnesses said that the man may have been exposing himself. However, the driver reportedly said that he was naked in his car only because he didn't want to mess up his spray tan. He said that he crashed into the pole because his shoe was stuck to the gas pedal.

When a person started to walk up to the car, the man said he tried to ward them off until he could put his clothes back on, but he may have been seen. He passed sobriety tests. There was not enough evidence to prove that the driver was maliciously exposing himself, a police report says, so there were no charges.

Alleged threats reported to police

Police were called to a law office recently after a woman threatened to shoot everyone in the Social Security office if her claim was denied, reports say.

On Nov. 6, a law employee called police saying that a woman came in who wanted to file a Social Security claim and wanted some legal help, a police report says.

While in the office, the woman reportedly threatened to shoot everyone in the Charleston Social Security office if she was denied again, the report says.

The employee said people do make threats sometimes, but since the client reportedly had a mental illness, the employee felt someone should be notified.

The Social Security office was notified and has flagged the woman as a possible threat. Police said to call them again if the woman came back to the law office and made more threats. There were no charges.

These news items were taken from selected incident reports from the Mount Pleasant Police Department.