Detroit’s gone through some tough times lately, so it’s perhaps not entirely shocking that there are some people trying to take advantage of the tourists that have descended on the city for the Final Four.
One such tourist was Indianapolis mayor Greg Ballard, whose city is hosting the 2010 Final Four. On the walk back to his hotel from Ford Field after Saturday’s games, Ballard saw a man who he thought was having a seizure, so he did the good samaritan thing and stopped to help. Well, you know what happens next. Seizure guy was actually just fine, and a second man walked up to Ballard and grabbed his cell phone and took off. Ballard isn’t happy with Detroit, and Detroit is now unhappy with Ballard.
Find out why after the jump.
The DETROIT NEWS says Michigan police had issued an advance warning that a “nationally known group of professional pickpockets” were going to be in town for the event.
Apparently, the top achievers in the regional Professional Pickpocket League were given all-expenses paid trips to the Final Four. If the recession doesn’t hit you in the wallet, I guess these guys are there to make sure someone does.
The Detroit police are not pleased with Ballard, who issued a press release on Monday morning about the incident, referring to it as a “mugging.” Ballard issued the release without informing the police that he would be taking the incident public:
“It’s been described as a mugging,” said Detroit Police Second Deputy Chief James Tate. “By no means was it a mugging. He was not injured.”
Tate says a man was arrested over the weekend for pickpocketing, but he’s not sure if it’s the guy who took Ballard’s phone.
All we know is this: If anything happens to Detroit’s mayor in Indy next year, you can bet that he’ll be calling every TV station in town before he files a police report. What goes around, comes around, Indy.
6:07 pm on April 6th, 2009
always trying to dis the D
11:12 am on April 7th, 2009
This is the Mayor that HATE black people and has mistreated the black community in Indianapolis by refusing to replace burned out street lights in their neighborhoods, closed their swimming pools, relocated security surveillance cameras from high crime areas in the black community to the jogging trails for whites, boycotted the black media, hired a ex-con as the deputy mayor to be an shining example for black children to model themselves after–this same ex-felon speaks like a slave just in from the cotton fields and is as dumb a one as wall, this mayor refuses to hire educated blacks and has no black female appointees of significances. To top if off, he allowed the Marines to conduct training exercises in black neighborhoods and parks, scaring the hell out of our elderly, sick and children, refuses to allow the removal of past discrimination by using race as a meaure when hiring police and firefighters…the list goes on and on.
3:42 pm on April 7th, 2009
After reading the first 9 words in your post. I have declared u a failure.