best of the blotter 26

FRAUD, KINGS ORCHARD TRAIL: A man received a fraudulent $10,500 check from Halliburton. He did not try to cash the check.

He was advised to shred it and check his credit reports.

PARKWAY: Four girls, ages 12 and 13, rode bicycles Sunday on the trail by Bagley Road. A elderly man in a maroon car pulled up near them and held a toy Scooby Doo out the window and began barking. The girls continued riding, but they encountered the man again at the crossover by Big Creek School. He held up the dog again and barked, then said “I’m going to follow you.” The girls rode to one of their homes, where a father called police. The man was not found.

THEFT, RICHMOND ROAD: On Saturday, a Sagamore Hills male, 52, was arrested for stealing a fire hydrant from the front of the Waterford of Richmond Heights.

The male said he and his friend stole the knocked over fire hydrant because he thought it would look good in his bar located in his basement.

The male apologized for his indiscretion and said he had never been in trouble before, which police confirmed.

Police smelled alcohol on the man and he said the smell was left over from the night before which probably prompted him to steal the fire hydrant.

The hydrant was returned.

NEIGHBOR DISPUTE, EAST COTTAGE STREET: Police responded to an Aug. 2 report of a 49-year-old woman yelling at her next-door neighbor’s landscaper about 8 a.m. as he was placing stones around a flower bed. The landscaper left after he told the neighbor to “shut her filthy mouth.“ The irate neighbor then got in her car and drove slowly down the street screaming, before spinning her tires in front of the neighbor’s house and driving off. The woman has been charged with disorderly conduct stemming from a June incident. This time, when police asked if the suspect had been yelling at her, the complainant replied, “no, but at one point, I think she was yelling at my flowers.“ Police planned to contact the suspect’s probation officer.

HARASSING COMMUNICATION, MAY COURT: An 11-year-old girl who may have been the victim of a wrong number got more than she bargained for Aug. 5 when she replied to a photo sent to her cell phone, asking “who is this?” and received a reply, “It’s the sandman, coming to get your soul because you haven’t been to church lately...” Police believe the originator in Texas may have mixed up cell phone numbers, leaving a series of messages that “were not necessarily threatening but certainly a little disturbing and bizarre in their content.”

DAMAGED PROPERTY: On Aug. 3, police received word of two incidents of graffiti vandalism.

A garage door in the 13000 block of Sun Crest Court was spray painted with the words “Strongsville Underground Thugs.”

A garage door in the 17000 block of Akita Court was also spray painted.