The Dalton Police Department is asking for the public’s help to identify two people who stole a purse containing cash and bank cards that was left behind by a shopper at a local grocery store. The couple were recorded by the store’s surveillance cameras.

The incident happened on Christmas Eve at the Food City grocery store on Walnut Avenue. The victim told police that she accidentally left her small clutch purse in a shopping cart after completing some last minute shopping and realized her mistake when she got to her car. She immediately returned to where she left her cart, but it had already been taken by other customers. Surveillance video shows a white male wearing a navy blue hoodie and jeans and a backwards baseball cap taking the cart. The woman with him, a white woman with blonde hair wearing a red Georgia Bulldogs hoodie and a gray toboggan, then took the purse out of the cart and handed it to the male who concealed it in the front pocket of his hoodie. The couple then left the store with the purse in a white four door Cadillac. The victim’s purse contained $280 in cash and bank cards. The victim’s debit card as used a short time later at a Marathon gas station in Calhoun, Georgia.

Surveillance images of the two suspects are included below. Anyone who recognizes the suspects or who has information about this crime is asked to please contact Detective Charles Williams at 706-278-9085, extension 9280.

Below: The suspects and their vehicle were recorded by store surveillance (click images to see a larger version)

The DPD’s Code Enforcement Unit (CEU) went on a tire round up on Thursday, collecting nearly 3,000 pounds of illegally dumped tires from sites around Dalton. The police department receives numerous complaints of illegal dumping of tires year round, and several times a year our CEU goes out on roundups to collect them with the assistance of the Dalton-Whitfield Solid Waste Authority and Keep Dalton-Whitfield Beautiful. The CEU is also investigating the illegal dumping, and those found to be illegally dumping tires in the city will be prosecuted and fined.

Thursday’s operation saw the code enforcement team visit several sites where illegal tire dumping has been reported. Our officers collected 100 tires, totaling 2,866 pounds. There are still more tires dumped around the city, but the CEU had limited hauling capacity for today’s operation.

It is against the law to dump tires on the side of the road or near creeks, lakes, rivers, etc. Besides being an eyesore, they can also cause environmental and health hazards for the community. Tires should be disposed of at a recycling center or the Dalton-Whitfield Solid Waste Authority. There is a small fee for disposing of tires, usually depending on the size of the tire and whether a wheel is attached. If you see anyone dumping tires in the city, please take note of the tag number of the vehicle involved and contact the DPD’s Code Enforcement Team at 706-278-9085, extension 9160.

Thanks to the Dalton-Whitfield Solid Waste Authority and Keep Dalton-Whitfield Beautiful for helping us out today with the operation!

Below: DPD Code Enforcement vehicles prepare to haul away nearly 3,000 pounds of illegally dumped tires

A longtime school resource officer was promoted to the rank of sergeant at Tuesday morning’s meeting of the Dalton Public Safety Commission. Bart Chandler, who has been assigned as the school resource officer (SRO) for Dalton High School since May 2015, was approved for promotion by a unanimous vote of the commission.

Sergeant Chandler is a US Army veteran, serving from 1999 until 2004. He joined the Dalton Police Department in March 2013, serving as an officer on patrol until moving to the SRO role in 2015. In his new role as sergeant, he will supervise the police department’s other SROs. Once a newly created SRO position is filled, the DPD will have six SROs under his supervision.

Sergeant Chandler is a 1998 graduate of Northwest Whitfield and a 2019 graduate of Thomas University.

Below: Sergeant Chandler poses with Chief Cliff Cason after being promoted at Tuesday morning’s meeting

The Dalton Police Department is asking for the public’s help to identify three suspects who worked together to shoplift nearly $900 worth of merchandise from Walmart. They were recorded by the store’s surveillance system.

The incident happened at the Shugart Road Walmart on November 29^th. Before 6:00 am, two male suspects and a female suspect entered the store and spread out, taking approximately 40 items before one of the suspects took bags containing the stolen items out a side door where he jumped into a waiting vehicle. The value of the stolen items totaled $888. Pictures of the suspect are included below.

Anyone who knows these three suspects or who has information on this crime is asked to please contact Detective Clinton Travis at 706-278-9085, extension 9231.

Below: The three suspects were recorded by store surveillance

The Dalton Police Department is asking for the public’s help to identify two people who are suspected in multiple entering auto case that happened on November 3^rd in Dalton. Two of the cases occurred at the ball fields at Heritage Park and a third happened to a traveler who was getting gas at a Dalton service station. The suspects used stolen bank cards to make more than $5,000 in fraudulent purchases.

The first two theft cases happened on November 3^rd at the baseball fields at Heritage Park. Both victims reported that they were parked at the ball fields and left their wallets behind inside their vehicles. Later in the evening, they were contacted by their banks about suspicious activity on their accounts which alerted them to the fact that their wallets were stolen from their vehicles. The third case happened when a traveler from North Carolina stopped to get gas at the RaceTrac on Chattanooga Road. After leaving town, the victim was contacted by his bank that his cards were being used for multiple purchases in Dalton. Investigators determined that bank cards stolen in these incidents were used to make multiple gift card purchases at the Glenwood Avenue Kroger for more than $1,700 and a Walgreen’s store for nearly $700. The suspects used the last victim’s credit cards for five transactions at the Walnut Avenue Kroger store for a total of $3,078.77.

The suspects, a white male and a white female, were apparently aware of the stores’ surveillance cameras, as they both wore black jackets and black hats and kept their heads down as they walked into and out of the stores. However investigators were still able to retrieve images that showed much of their faces and those pictures are included below.

Anyone who knows these suspects or who has information on these crimes is asked to contact Detective John Edwards at 706-278-9085, extension 9152.

Below: The suspects were recorded by store surveillance

The Dalton Police Department is asking for the public’s help to identify two women who scammed an elderly man out of $1,500. The women told the man that they needed money to collect a lottery prize.

The incident happened in early November at the Walmart Neighborhood Market on Walnut Avenue. The victim, a 77 year old man, was walking to the store when he was approached by two Hispanic women. The women asked the victim, who does not speak English, for a ride to a Hispanic grocery store. The man agreed to give them women a ride. Once in his van, the women told the victim they had won the lottery, but needed money to claim the prize. They said that if he agreed to give them $2,000 to help them collect the money, they would give him much more money in return for his trouble. The unsuspecting victim agreed, and drove to the Wells Fargo bank on Hamilton Street at withdrew $1,000 in cash, which he placed in the glove compartment of his vehicle. He then drove to a nearby Bank of America location and withdrew $500 from an account there. The women insisted that they still needed another $500, and the victim told them he could get it from his residence. The women refused to go to his house, saying they would wait for him at the post office on Thornton Avenue. The man dropped them off there, and when he returned with the rest of the cash, the women were gone. The victim then realized that the $1,500 cash from his bank withdrawals which he’d left in his car was missing.

The suspects were recorded by store surveillance at the Walmart arriving in a silver SUV with a Hispanic male who is also being considered as a suspect by investigators. The male suspect also approached the victim in the parking lot before he left with the women. The female suspects and the person of interest were recorded entering and leaving the store without buying anything before they approached the victim as he arrived in the store’s parking lot. The first suspect wore a light colored coat, dark pants, and a beanie hat. The second suspect wore her hair in a ponytail with a blue and white striped shirt and multicolored patterned pants and light shoes. The male suspect in the case wore a blue button down collared shirt with navy blue pants. Pictures of all three individuals are included below.

Anyone who has information on this crime or the identity of these three individuals is asked to please contact Detective Charles Williams with the Dalton Police Department at 706-278-9085, extension 9280.

Below: The three suspects were recorded by store surveillance