Every day, police officers respond to reports of all sorts of events and nonevents, most of which never make the news. Here is a sampling of lesser-known — but no less noteworthy — incidents from police log books (a.k.a. blotters) in our suburbs.
GROUND TO A HALT
At 3:21 p.m. Aug. 16, Wilmington police pulled over a man riding a lawn mower on a main road in the area of Aldrich Road and Shawsheen Avenue. Police posted a photo of the mower on the department’s Facebook page and wrote: “We all love the feeling of the wind blowing in our face on the open road, but for the record, it is not permissible to drive your riding lawn mower down the street.”
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NOT GOING BATTY
At approximately 5:54 p.m. Aug. 11, Brookline police officers were dispatched for a report of a bat in a residence on Leverett Street. According to a police blog post, a woman told police that she unexpectedly encountered the bat while she was putting on her shoes. Apparently when she put her foot into one of her shoes she felt the animal and discovered its hiding place. Police said the bat was captured and sent to the state laboratory for rabies testing.
CAUGHT IN A JAM
Around 5:44 p.m. July 10, Revere police received a report of a driver who hit a wall at Blanchards Wines & Spirits and tried to flee from the scene. According to police, the driver took off on Revere Street and tried to get away on Broadway, but the heavy traffic on Broadway quashed her getaway plan. Police charged the Swampscott woman, 54, with operating under the influence of liquor (second offense), negligent operation, reckless operation, and failing to stop for police.
A BOX OF NOTHING
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At 5:10 p.m. Aug. 12, someone came into the Brookline police station with a mysterious metal box that had been discovered on Winchester Street. According to a blog post by police, the box had writing on the side that said “Open Me,” and inside the box was a note that said: “Today fortune strikes. You’ve found yourself lucky enough to come across this box. You can keep the treasure it holds.” Police said the box appeared to be “part of a global ‘social experiment’” and similar boxes have turned up elsewhere in the United States and around the world. (Indeed, similar objects were found in Cambridge and Boston around the same time the one in Brookline showed up). While other boxes have been found containing money, police said, the box found on Winchester Street was empty.
RUN FOR COVER
At 8:05 p.m. Aug. 15, Peabody police were called to a restaurant on Route 114 for a report of a woman who was “out of control.” According to the police log entry, she “was upset the host coughed on her food.”
LOST AND FOUND
On July 27, Stow police learned that someone at Stow Acres Country Club found a police badge on the golf course. Police came by and picked the badge up at the pro shop and brought it to the police station “for safe keeping,” according to the police log entry.
On July 31, Melrose police got a call from a woman who discovered two American flags in her backyard. She thought one of them might belong to her neighbor. According to the log entry, she told police that she’d notify her neighborhood’s community Facebook page.
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Bridgewater police tweeted that on Aug. 2 a woman using a metal detector reported finding an “old cannonball” on Bridge Street.
On Aug. 12, Wilmington police heard from a resident who found a drone in her yard. She described it as a black drone with an “H” in the middle of it, according to the log entry.
On Aug. 21, Stow police got a call from a resident who reported that there was a mailbox in her driveway that wasn’t hers. The responding officer reported that the mailbox had been “returned and replanted into its original location,” according to the log entry.
Emily Sweeney can be reached at esweeney@globe.com.