OMGPD: Buy Tools as Tools Get Stolen, Grinch Strikes, Hot Firewood and a Cross-Dressing Flasher

GENEVA

Aren’t You Supposed to Buy Tools at Home Depot?

When you go shopping at Home Depot this time of year, you're more likely to be coming home with more tools than you left with. That wasn't the case for one victim, whose van apparently was broken into while he was shopping. About $1,000 in tools were taken.

BATAVIA

First Scrooge Blotter Item of the Season?

Count it! The first official Scrooge report of holiday season happened sometime prior to 12:33 p.m. Nov. 21 in Batavia — a week before Thanksgiving — when unknown offender cut the Christmas lights on an evergreen tree in the 800 block of West Wilson Street. The lights were only worth $5, but, you know, it’s the thought that counts.

BATAVIA

… But the Fire Is So Delightful

The weather outside might be frightful, but the holidays might be a little warmer for at least one thief in Batavia .. and a little colder for the victim. Someone took about $500 worth of pre-cut firewood from property in the 400 block of Pine Street, according to a Batavia police report filed at 3:39 p.m. Nov. 23.

BATAVIA

Theftus Interuptus, the Sequel

Maybe they teach this tactic in Theft 101: "If spotted or confronted, leave the cart and walk away." For the second week in a row, the Batavia police blotter includes a case in which potential shoplifters left a cart full of merchandise after they suspect they've been had. In this case, a couple left Wal-Mart in Batavia with $1,030 in merchandise but abandoned the cart and fled the scene after being confronted by an employee.

ST. CHARLES

Is the Cross-Dressing Flasher Back?

Police were called in Nov. 18 to investigate a report of a man wearing a bra on the second floor of a St. Charles inn in a case that is similar to a report of a cross-dressing flasher at the same establishment in July. Police were dispatched to the Holiday Inn Express on Nov. 18 after a guest reported to management that she had seen a man wearing women’s clothing in one of the stairwells. The man ran away when the woman entered the stairwell. The desk attendant, who was working when the incident occurred in July, called police and then went to check the stairwell. She did not find the individual, but she did find a door that had been propped open with a stick.

Police report information is provided by local police departments. Charges are not evidence of guilt. They are a record of police actions on a given day, and persons charged with a crime are presumed innocent until proven guilty in court. If you or a family member are charged or cited and the case is subsequently adjudicated, we encourage you to notify the editor. We will verify and report the outcome.