Cat Attacks, Stops Decatur Couple From Fighting

This information comes from Decatur Police Department reports.

A housecat broke up an argument May 16 by resorting to feline violence.

Officers got a domestic disturbance call and arrived about 12:45 a.m at Amber Ridge Apartments on Scott Boulevard.  A man bleeding from his arms and legs met them at the door.

The man said he and his wife were engaged in an intense verbal arguement and startled the housecat. The cat jumped on his wife's head and violently scratched her.

The man said he grabbed the cat and tore it off his wife's head. The cat started clawing his arms, so he threw it on the floor. The cat attacked his legs. Once he got it to stop, he called 911 for medical assistance.

Police went inside and talked to the wife in the master bedroom, where the pillowcases were saturated with blood. She was holding a towel to her head to stop the bleeding.

She said the argument started because she asked for a divorce. She said her husband grabbed her arms and held her down on the bed, where the cat first attacked. She said there was no other physical contact.

Because of conflicting statements and lack of physical evidence, police made no arrests but set up the case for a warrant application. Both the husband and wife were treated on the scene and didn't go to the emergency room. The man spent the night at a hotel.

It's unknown what happened to the cat.

Police investigated a possible rape at the Super 8 Motel on May 12.

Officers arrived about 7 a.m. and talked to a man who said he had "rough consensual sex" with a woman in the motel room. 

The woman said no sexual assault occurred but wished to leave the Church Street motel. Police gave her a ride home, where she spoke with her mother.

The woman then said the man sexually assaulted her and slapped her in the mouth and head. She said she screamed for him to stop.

Police took the woman to the police station to take a statement. Once there, the woman said no sexual assault occurred but that the man had struck her. She said she didn't want to prosecute.

She was given a ride home.

A man reported his ex-wife spit on him during a custody exchange.

Police were called to the Kroger on Commerce Drive about 8 p.m. May 13, where they met the man. The man said he and his ex-wife were exchanging custody of their three children, ages 2 through 6, when they started arguing.

The man said he went to the rear of the vehicle to retrieve the children's belongings when his ex-wife "suddenly spit towards his upper torso and the saliva struck him in the left forearm area."

The man didn't call police but finished transferring the kids to his ex-wife. Police gave him pamphlets on domestic violence.

Police called the ex-wife. She adamantly denied spitting but said she had a cold and might have coughed on her ex-husband.

Because of the conflicting statements, police set up a warrant application hearing.

Two brown leather briefcases were stolen May 15 from a residence in the 300 block of Durand Road.

The resident called police about 8 p.m. and found the front door forced open and the inside of the house in dissaray.

Police found one briefcase on a pile of wood outside the house and the other in the nearby woods. Both had been forced open.

A neighbor said she saw three slender white men near the house earlier but didn't think it odd because the yard is often used as a cut-through.

Nothing else was reported stolen.

A laptop was reported stolen May 16 from the Decatur Library.

A woman said she went to the bathroom, leaving her 7-year-old Dell laptop on a table on the third floor.

When she returned 10 minutes later, it was gone. She valued the laptop at $200. 

Police investigated an attempted burglary at a house in the 100 block of Glendale Avenue. The woman locked up her house May 11 and came home to find two windows broken. The house was not entered, however.