Oak Ridge Today

Former IHOP server suspected of taking money by changing credit card receipts

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A former server at IHOP Restaurant in Oak Ridge is suspected of taking an unknown amount of money from customers by changing the tip amounts on several credit card and debit card receipts, authorities said.

The suspected thefts occurred between October 1 and December 28, an Oak Ridge Police Department report said.

It’s not clear how much money might have been taken during a period estimated to be about two months. ORPD Officer Garrett L. Robbins reported that the IHOP regional manager who reported the suspected theft is still calculating how much might have been taken.

More information will be added as it becomes available.

Police investigate Utica Circle apartment fire as possible arson

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Utica Circle Fire

The Oak Ridge Police Department is investigating a Saturday night fire at an apartment building on Utica Circle as a possible arson. (Photos by Tom Scott)

The Oak Ridge Police Department is investigating the Saturday night fire at an apartment building on Utica Circle as a possible arson.

A suspect in the case is also being investigated for reckless endangerment, an ORPD report said. The Saturday night fire endangered other residents in the eight-unit building in the McKenzie Acres apartment complex and displaced those tenants, the report said. The Red Cross found temporary housing for them. [Read more…]

Police: KKK-related fliers found in west Oak Ridge

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Fliers with a letterhead from the United Klans of America were left in driveways in a small west Oak Ridge neighborhood this week in zip-locked baggies anchored with rocks, authorities said.

“You can sleep well tonight knowing the UKA is awake,” said the fliers, which announced a neighborhood watch and provided a phone number and website address. The website consists of white supremacist propaganda related to the Ku Klux Klan, Oak Ridge Police Department Officer Garrett L. Robbins wrote in a report Wednesday morning.

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TDOT employee resigns after crash, DUI arrest in Oak Ridge

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A Tennessee Department of Transportation employee who worked in Oak Ridge resigned Thursday after he was charged with driving under the influence following a police investigation of a crash at Oak Ridge Turnpike and Louisiana Avenue on Friday, Feb. 1, officials said.

Police said William Hays Halbert, 56, of Knoxville, had been driving a state-owned 2010 Ford F150 pickup truck, but he had slurred speech and bloodshot, watery eyes, according to an affidavit filed in Anderson County General Sessions Court. Halbert smelled like alcohol and appeared to be confused, and he had a hard time following directions, Oak Ridge Police Department Officer Garrett L. Robbins wrote in the affidavit.

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Man shopping for Elmo doll for son says he was assaulted, robbed

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A Knoxville man shopping for an Elmo doll for his son for Christmas said he was assaulted and robbed of $300, but he told Oak Ridge police he lost consciousness during the alleged assault and couldn’t remember where or how it occurred.

The 32-year-old man also could not explain a wet, blue towel in his truck with blood on it, an Oak Ridge Police Department report said.

The man reportedly drove himself to Methodist Medical Center of Oak Ridge with broken cheek bones after the alleged Saturday evening assault and robbery. He also had a red, swollen face; cuts and abrasions on his face and head; two large knots on the back of his head; a busted, bleeding lip; a one-inch cut above his right eye; purple marks on his face—and what appeared to be a shoe tread on the left side of his face, the police report said.

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