Snacking Shoplifter Found with Marijuana, Intoxicated Woman With Gun Arrested at Northville Bar

Area Patch sites provided the following reports. In all incidents where an arrest occurred, a charge is merely an accusation and not evidence of guilt.

Clinton Township

A 33-year-old man was arrested Feb. 2 after Meijer store employees caught him snacking on sushi and donuts, and attempting to pay a lesser price for items on which he switched the price tags, Clinton Township police say.

Meijer employees told police the man entered the Groesbeck store around midnight Feb. 2 and was seen switching price tags on multiple items, including a hoodie and jacket. While in the grocery section, the suspect also picked up packages of sushi and donuts, eating two of each, according to the police report.

The suspect was stopped by Meijer loss prevention at the self-checkout as he attempted to ring up items at lesser prices from the tags he had switched. He was taken to the store office to await police, according to the report.

When police arrived the suspect was also found with a baggie of marijuana and several morphine pills that he admitted were his, police say. He was arrested for retail fraud and possession of a controlled substance.

Northville Patch

Northville Township police dispatched to Rocky's on Seven Mile Road at 7:15 p.m. on Feb. 1 found a woman who was carrying a handgun passed out in the restroom. According to the report, staff members told the officers that restaurant patrons saw the woman's firearm.

The officers entered the restroom and saw the woman leaning over the bathroom counter with her head in one of the sinks. The grip and top of a handgun, which was not holstered, were sticking out of the waistband in the back of her pants, the report said. Officers took the gun without incident.

Plymouth-Canton Patch

Criminal charges against a 20-year-old Canton woman accused of wrapping her stillborn baby in towels and a garbage bag were dismissed Friday, according to the Canton Observer.

The charges alleged that Emily Dunklee, 20, of Canton hid her pregnancy from what defense attorneys described as a strict Catholic family because she did not want her parents to know she was carrying a child. She wrapped the infant in towels and a garbage bag and left it on a deck outside the home she shared with her parents, where her father later discovered the body.

Novi Patch

A serial bank robber tied to crimes in Novi was sentenced Thursday to 45 years in federal prison, after having been convicted of four counts of bank robbery and one count of conspiracy to commit bank robbery.

According to a press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office, Arthur Payton, 45, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Lawrence P. Zatkoff in Port Huron. 

According to the release, a federal jury convicted Payton in November 2012 of recruiting heroin-addicted prostitutes to rob banks in Oakland and Wayne counties. After the FBI determined that Payton was responsible for the bank robberies, his co-defendant wore a hidden microphone and recorded Payton planning his next set of bank robberies in downtown Detroit. Payton stole approximately $8,000 from the four banks.