Tempe Police reported the following incidents Tuesday:
A 31-year-old Tempe man was arrested Sept. 17 on the 1800 block of North Scottsdale Road on suspicion of criminal trespassing, criminal damage, shoplifting, robbery and interference with an emergency telephone call, according to a police report.
The man and another unidentified man took more than $60 of raw meat from a Food City grocery store, police reported.
They then stole the assistant store manager’s iPhone after he confronted them and attempted to call the police, according to the report.
The man allegedly grabbed the cell phone forcefully from the manager’s ear after asking him, “What are you going to do?”, police reported.
The men then fled the store heading southbound along Scottsdale Road, according to the report.
Police reported that officers found the man roughly three hours after he fled the grocery store. Officers were able to find the man by tracking the manager's phone with an app he had installed, according to the report.
Officers found the man in an alley near a vacant lot, attempting to flee on a bicycle, according to the police report.
The man was transported and booked into Tempe City Jail, police reported.
A 58-year-old Phoenix man was arrested Sept. 20 on the 500 block of South Mill Avenue on suspicion of criminal littering, disorderly conduct, obstruction of a public thoroughfare, reporting false information to a police officer and failing to carry sex-offender identification, according to a police report.
People saw the man crossing the street illegally when he caused a “small passenger vehicle” to stop in the roadway, police reported.
The man then threw a newspaper he had been holding at the window of the vehicle, and the wind caused the newspaper’s pages to separate and cover the stretch of Mill Avenue between Fifth and Sixth Street, according to the report.
After officers contacted the man, he give them a false name and date of birth, police reported.
According to the report, it took multiple attempts to obtain the suspect’s information before he admitted his real name and date of birth, which revealed him to be a registered sex offender.
The suspect allegedly said he "did not want to go to jail” and he had “lost” the state-issued sex offender ID he was required to carry at all times, police reported.
The man told officers he became a registered sex offender after he was seen defecating in public, according to the report.
The man was transported to Tempe City Jail, where he was booked and released pending charges, police reported.
Reports compiled by Megann Phillips
Reach the reporter at megann.phillips@asu.edu or follow her on Twitter @megannphillips
