Grove City police responded to a pair of incidents that apparently involved firecrackers.
On May 27, a resident in the 4100 block of Rockledge Street called police to report what she described as an explosive device had been placed in the gas tank of her husband's car.
The woman said she was heading to the backyard of her house about 10:20 a.m. when she discovered the gas-tank cover on her husband's car was open. She told her husband and they assumed gasoline had been siphoned overnight. When her husband went out to check his car, he found the screw cap was on the ground and an object was sticking out of the gas fill line, according to reports. He pulled out the object, discovering it appeared to be an M-88 firecracker.
There were ashes in the opening of the gas lid from where the device was lit, reports stated.
An officer spoke to a neighbor who said he heard a loud boom at 4 a.m. May 27 and he looked outside at the time, but did not see anyone in the area.
Officers were dispatched around 9:11 p.m. May 30 after a motorist reported seeing someone firing what he thought was a rifle from a car toward Grove City High School, 4665 Hoover Road.
The man told the police dispatcher he saw a black or dark-color vehicle with a hatchback, occupied by two males, park near the southeast corner of the school building and fire six or seven shots out the driver's-side window from what he thought might be a rifle, reports stated. He said he witnessed the incident at 9:08 p.m. while he was driving down Hoover Road. He said that after the "shots" were fired, the car sped through the school parking lot and turned north onto Hoover Road.
Officers were not able to locate the vehicle after they arrived on the scene.
Police spoke with several people who had been playing a softball game behind the school at the time of the incident. They all said they heard what sounded like fireworks, although none of them saw what caused the sound. They said they heard about five to eight loud pops, reports stated. One of the witnesses said the noises seemed to follow a pattern or rhythm and did not sound random.
Officers, school maintenance employees and the school principal examined the building and searched the area around the school but could find no evidence of a shooting.
The principal provided a surveillance video that showed a dark-colored hatchback vehicle circle the school property before parking for about 11 seconds near the southeast corner of the building. The vehicle can then be seen speeding north through the lot before heading north on Hoover, according to the report. No flashes consistent with gunfire were observed in the video.
In other recent Grove City police reports:
* Officers responded May 25 to a business in the 4100 block of Hoover Road after the company's off-site security team reported a man was attempting to cash a fraudulent check.
After the man presented the check, the clerk discovered the Indiana company named as the issuer of the check had placed a fraud alert on all of its accounts for checks being cashed in Ohio.
The teller told the man she needed to verify the check by calling the company. She told police the man became visibly nervous and kept asking her what was wrong. He began talking on his cellphone, while pacing back and forth, before claiming he had to pick up his children at day care and would return later, according to reports.
When police arrived at the scene, a passerby told them the suspect had just run across the street. Another officer working special duty reported seeing the suspect running toward apartments on Sonora Drive near Larosa Drive. Officers caught up with the suspect on Santa Maria Drive near Dolores Drive, reports stated.
Although the man told police he had just completed a job and the check he presented to the bank had been given to him for his work, an officer verified with the business that the check was fraudulent.
The man was arrested and charged with a felony county of forgery and taken to the Franklin County jail, according to reports.
* A Lockbourne woman reported the passenger side of her car was vandalized May 25, resulting in $500 worth of damage. The woman said the incident occurred between 6:50 and 9 a.m. while she was at her place of work in the 3900 block of Hoover Road.
* A Sellersburg, Indiana, woman told police her cellphone, valued at $500, was stolen May 26 from a store in the 1600 block of Stringtown Road.
The woman said she had left her phone in her shopping cart. When she realized a few minutes later that she had forgotten her phone, she returned to the store, but the phone had been taken from the cart.
* A resident in the 4100 block of Broadway reported he was a victim May 29 of an extortion attempt. The man said he began speaking earlier that day with a woman on Facebook, who then asked him to video chat with her. He said that during the chat, he took off his clothes. He told police the woman in the video chat did not look like the one in the Facebook profile image.
He said that after the video chat ended, he received a text message from a phone number threatening to show the nude video if he did not pay $10,000, according to reports. He said he immediately contacted police.
* A resident in the 3300 block of Broadway reported May 29 that three unauthorized transactions totaling $645 were made from her Western Union account.
She said she discovered the transactions had been made and the money picked up from a store in the 2400 block of Stringtown.
She said she also discovered a handgun, valued at $400, was missing from her house, according to reports. She said her boyfriend is the only person she knows of who would have her account information and she last saw her boyfriend when she dropped him off May 27 on Olive Street in Columbus.