Dec. 31
(2009-615064) Noon: Overnight, someone took DVD players, a big stereo and speaker boxes — total value $7,600 — from a Hummer in the 5700 block of Vista Linda Drive.
Linda Drive.Jan. 1
(2010-12) 12:05 a.m.: Happy New Year! A number of Orlandoans greeted the event with a spasm of gunfire. Just after midnight, someone shot one round into an occupied house in the 2500 block of Oak Park Way. The bullet landed in the living room. Nobody was hit, but no one was caught, either.
(2010-141) 1:28 a.m.: The seasonal joy continued on the corner of West Colonial Drive and Mills Avenue. There, two guys caused a fender-bender — then squeezed off several shots at the car they hit. After following their target down Colonial to North Forsyth Road, they finally left.
(2010-324) 3:09 a.m.: Cops responding to a fight at the Bank of America on North Orange Avenue found it had gotten serious. A man trying to leave the scene ran over several people — one of them twice. An officer shot into the man's car. The driver stopped and was arrested on a charge of attempted homicide.
(2010-2285) 2:30 p.m.: Thieves took two days to go in and out of a house in the 3100 block of Split Willow Drive "multiple times." While there, they took an iPod Touch and cell phones, "along with a large amount of candy and other food items the subject sells from her house."
(2010-918) 3:45 p.m.: In the 700 block of Easy Avenue, thieves do it the hard way. They cut through a convertible's roof to pop the trunk release and get at a Dell laptop, an iPod and sunglasses.
Jan. 2
(2010-1819) 2:25 a.m.: The sudden cold made merchandise at the Family Dollar store on West Gore Street too tempting. Someone broke the window with a piece of concrete and took blankets and clothing.
(2010-1906) 8:45 a.m.: A homeless man said winter weather was what provoked him to break a car window and pocket a GPS in the 200 block of North Brown Avenue. He told police he just wanted to warm up in jail.
(2010-2309) 3:18 p.m.: A guy with a gun interrupted a basketball game at Catalina Elementary School. From three players, he took "all their items and vehicle keys," followed by their Mazda. He drove off toward John Young Parkway. A man was later busted with the car.
(2010-2717) 9:13 p.m.: Police searched a 17-year-old they found in Leroy Hoequist Park after closing time. Officers said he shoved one of them and ran, so they Tasered him. On him they found pot and a .38 revolver reported stolen from a New York cop. He was arrested.
Jan. 3
(2010-3053) 12:55 a.m.: A guy said he was walking on the railroad tracks in the 1000 block of North Orange Blossom Trail when two others mugged him and took his cell phone and wallet.
(2010-3171) 1:15 a.m.: They're seeing a pattern around Metro Place Apartments on South Kirkman Road. Someone's been removing window frames and coming in to steal a few things at several places, police said.
(2010-3308) 6:30 a.m.: How would Jack Benny answer the demand, "Your money or her life?" At a house in the 4500 block of Edgemoor Street, two men in all-black clothes, masks and gloves grabbed a woman who was walking to her car. They told her husband they'd kill her unless he gave them money. "He then closed and locked the door and called police," the report says. The armed men fled, postponing his decision.
(2010-4523) 10 a.m.: A dozen bulldozer rollers and four bulldozer/crane sprockets disappeared from the yard of Crawler & Crane Equipment on Fred L. Maxwell Boulevard. Sometime in the preceding three days, someone had cut a hole in the chain-link fence.
(2010-3696) 5 p.m.: Residents of an apartment in the 5900 block of Curry Ford Road hadn't looked for their 12-gauge shotgun or SKS assault rifle in the last month. When they did, the guns were gone.
(2010-4035) 11:27 p.m.: Mother knows best. At Lakeview Apartments on Orange Center Boulevard, she knew where her boy was hiding, and cops answering a burglary call were thus able to charge him with "throwing a deadly missile into an occupied building."
Jan. 4
(OCSO): Two men fled the Right Way store at 5852 South Orange Ave. in a white Dodge van after stabbing an employee and taking money from the register.
(2010-4549) 7:30 a.m.: Someone cut through the chain on a gate at Barr's Equipment Service on Taylor Avenue and took a blue Miller Bobcat 250 on a trailer, but this may not have been noticed for up to four days.
(2010-5149) 4 p.m.: In the 8100 block of Lee Vista Boulevard, someone got into a car and stole a 9 mm Ruger and 50 rounds to match.
(2010-5603) 10:50 p.m.: Two guys wearing hoodies robbed a man at gunpoint in the Days Inn parking lot on Caravan Court. They took his wallet and cell phone, then fled in a small gray or brown car.
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