Lang
4/18/20
A local transient faces numerous charges after Iowa City Police say he targeted customers at high-traffic areas such as pharmacies and drive-through ATMs after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Online records show 34-year-old Trell Grant was given a trespass warning after he was reportedly bothering customers for money outside CVS Pharmacy on Muscatine Avenue on March 25th. Grant returned to the pharmacy on March 30th, again harassing customers for money. He was found across the street at Cricket Wireless and charged with trespassing. He was charged with a second trespassing count after police discovered he’d earlier been trespassed from the Cricket Wireless and Subway properties for entering an employee-only area five days earlier.
Grant had also been trespassed from the nearby Hills Bank property, where he was again reportedly asking customers for money at the drive-through ATM on April 7th. He was found in the Cricket Wireless parking lot, and charged with trespassing for both locations.
The next day Grant was charged for trespassing at the Muscatine Avenue Kum & Go. One day later he was charged with trespassing for again asking customers for money at CVS. The next day he moved on to the nearby Walgreens, where he was also charged with trespassing after receiving a warning for panhandling there.
Grant was given two more trespass charges after begging for money at Kum & Go on April 12th and 13th.
On April 13th Grant was caught allegedly trying to steal seven bottles of motor oil totaling over $42 from the 1st Avenue Hy-Vee, where he had been given a trespass warning the previous night for panhandling. That incident also includes a 5th Degree Theft charge.
Police estimate they received over ten trespassing complaints about Grant on April 12th and 13th alone.