Multiple suspects were taken into custody at the Portsmouth Speedway gas station and convenience store over the weekend, highlighting a problem so bad that Speedway’s corporate security contacted Portsmouth Police earlier in the year to ask what could be done about the issue.
Despite the best efforts of the store and PPD, panhandlers, addicts, homeless people, shoplifters, and other troublemakers seem drawn to the store.
Just after midnight, officers responded to Speedway for a report of a suspicious person.
They took Adrianne Cook into custody on an open warrant for operating a vehicle without a license. This was Cook’s 15th arrest. Previous charges include failure to appear, contempt, possession of drug abuse instruments, probation violation, grand theft, theft, domestic violence, DUI, and receiving stolen property.
Officers returned to Speedway at 9 p.m., after employees spotted a man who had previously been barred from the store inside. He left before the police could arrive.
Just after midnight on Saturday, a caller reported a man with a loaded gun at the gas pumps. Officers responded to the scene and took a man into custody. Police transported the suspect to the police station and took information for a report.
At 4 a.m., employees reported a man who frequently steals from the store was inside and asked police to trespass him from the property. Officers caught up with him in front of Cash America and warned him not to return to the store or face charges.