Over four days this week, police in Hamilton County have responded to at least nine robberies, eight of them armed -- but most suspects got nothing for their crimes, and at least one gave some money back to the victims.
Police have arrested three men in connection with one robbery in which the victim was beaten so badly some of his ribs may have been broken, police said. In another robbery, a man lost his wallet and phone.
Maybe it was the full moon this week, but the other incidents ended up with the victims getting at least some of their valuables handed back to them by the robber or the suspect got scared and ran off. In three of those incidents, the suspect is the same man.
According to Chattanooga police and Hamilton County Sheriff's reports:
At 8:06 p.m. Tuesday in The Commons apartments at 1521 Hickory Valley Road, Natasha Constante and her boyfriend, Edgar Canal, were getting out of their vehicle when a black man walked up, pulled out a small handgun and asked for Canal's wallet.
Canal gave him the wallet, but when Constante told the robber that they had a child, he gave it back and said he was an undercover police officer. When the couple asked to see a badge, the man told them he didn't have one and left.
About an hour later and four miles away at the Royal Arms Apartments on 312 McBrien Road, Armando Flores was working on his car in the parking lot when a man walked up behind him, pulled a small handgun and demanded his wallet.
When Flores' girlfriend, Therasa Frady, came outside, he told her to go back inside, but the suspect told her it was OK to stay and gave the wallet back to Flores. The suspect got into a silver Chevrolet HHR and drove away.
About two hours later and back at the Commons complex, Alberto Perez was at the trash bin when a young black man walked up and asked Perez to help him put a box in the bin. The young man then pulled out a gun, but several of Perez's friends were on a balcony above and began yelling. The suspect fled in a silver Chevrolet HHR.
While interviewing the robbery victims, police found the HHR abandoned in a parking lot next door to the Commons complex. They learned that a man named Ernest Ervin Sims III, 21, had rented the vehicle.
Sims later called police to report a rental car stolen. During interviews about the stolen car, Sims "confessed that he conspired with a suspect" in the robberies, according to police reports.
Sims was being held Friday in the Hamilton County Jail on a $140,000 bond and faces an Oct. 26 court hearing on three charges of criminal conspiracy, three charges of accessory to aggravated robbery, one charge of aggravated assault, one charge of filing a false report and one charge of reckless endangerment, records show.
But the odd robberies weren't finished.
About 9:30 p.m. Tuesday, a man entered the back door of The Curry Pot at 6940 Lee Highway, went to the register and said "money, money, money" to Sosamma Chacko, 49.
When the robber saw Chacko push the hold-up alarm button, he ran from the restaurant through the kitchen. Chacko described him as a 35-year-old black man about 5 feet 11.
A few hours later, at 12:09 a.m. Wednesday, 27-year-old Karlotta Polk, of Chicago, and Donald Asquith, 60, of Clarksville, Tenn., were walking from The Chattanoogan hotel to the Staybridge Suites Hotel at 1300 Fort St. when two white men with guns approached them.
The men demanded money and Polk gave them two $5 bills, but one of the suspects gave her back one of the bills and said he was sorry.
The men then demanded Asquith's money and, when he refused to give them anything, the men ran toward Market Street. The men were wearing "dark jogging suits," the victims told police.
In one of the more violent reports this week, Hamilton County sheriff's deputies responded Thursday to a robbery and stolen car call at 8305 Daisy Dallas Road in Soddy-Daisy.
David Vaughn, 23, reported that two men had walked up to him while he was parking his 2003 Chrysler PT Cruiser and "started punching him through the window." During the beating the men stole his wallet, which contained $60, he said. The suspects then pulled him from the vehicle and started kicking him on the ground, stole the PT Cruiser and drove away.
Deputies later arrested Ozzy Lee Odom, 21, and Gregory Alexander, 20, on charges of aggravated assault and theft over $1,000. The two were being held the Hamilton County Jail on Friday, records show, but no bond information was available.
Vaughn told police there was a third suspect, but there are no records on his arrest.
Weary said that the number of reported robberies so far this year isn't out of the ordinary. Through September there have been 444 robberies reported in Chattanooga, compared with 432 for the same period last year.
She advised residents to remain aware of their surroundings.
"Don't park in dark places; don't leave valuables in the car; make sure you follow the buddy system," she said.