PPD to 16th Street Woman “STOP CALLING!”

She called police. Then she called again. And again. A Portsmouth woman was convinced someone at her apartment complex was messing with her car, and she wasn't about to let it go. Over three days, officers kept returning to the 16th Street apartments as her accusations grew and her patience wore thin. First Call: Were the Lug Nuts Loosened? The first call came around 7 am after the woman reported seeing a man near her vehicle. She said she yelled at him and he ran away. An officer found the man still on the property and spoke with him. He said he had simply walked past the car on his way to throw trash in the dumpster. The woman told police she had discovered loose lug nuts on her vehicle after seeing the man nearby. She claimed she had tightened them by hand without using any tools. But when the officer inspected the vehicle, the lug nuts were not loose. The woman wanted the man arrested for damaging her car and yelling at her. She also accused him and others of taunting her. Police explained that taunting someone, by itself, is not a crime. Officers contacted apartment management about possible surveillance footage, but management later confirmed there were no cameras covering the area where the car had been parked. With conflicting accounts and no evidence of vehicle tampering, police closed the complaint. Second Call: A Slashed Tire — or a Slow Leak? The following afternoon, the woman called police again, this time reporting damage to her rear passenger-side tire. She accused a man who was reportedly in Wisconsin at the time of having damaged the tire during the previous day’s incident. The woman told police her low tire pressure warning had come on the day before and she had added air. When she went outside the next day, the tire was flat. An officer examined it but found no visible damage indicating it had been slashed. Police told the woman that the tire appeared to have a leak that needed to be repaired. According to the report, she became upset and disagreed with the officer’s assessment. Third Call: Police Say There’s No Evidence of a Crime The woman contacted police again the next day, asking to discuss the original incident. An officer reviewed the earlier calls before speaking with her by phone. According to the report, she repeated the same complaints about the vehicle. The officer advised her that the previous investigations had found no evidence of criminal activity and that no new report would be filed. The woman again became upset with the response. No arrest was made in any of the three calls. What began as a report of a man standing near a parked car turned into three days of police complaints over alleged loose lug nuts, a flat tire, and accusations against neighbors. After checking the vehicle, speaking with the people involved, and contacting apartment management, police said they had found no evidence that anyone had tampered with the car.

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