From cellphone theft to aggravated assault, Denton and Denton County law enforcement officers handled an array of problems in 2008.

They never know if a seemingly innocuous situation will turn violent. But when the call goes out — usually more than 500 in a 24-hour period — they respond.

The following are representative of the thousands of reports generated in 2008:

JANUARY

A bottle of Valentino’s Hot Sauce thrown during a fight broke a man’s window, he reported.

The man said he could hear some men outside his window in the 500 block of Londonderry Lane arguing about a soccer game. Then he heard a crash and found his window broken with hot sauce on the shards. Police talked to some of the men who were fighting but made no arrests.

FEBRUARY

A jealous boyfriend dragged a woman around by her hair one night after an evening of drinking and swapping sex partners, according to a Denton County sheriff’s report.

Two couples were partying in a house in the 5000 block of Duck Creek Road, and the boyfriend suggested that they swap partners and have sex, the report stated. The others agreed.

The boyfriend finished having sex with the other woman and then began to watch his girlfriend have sex with the other man. He became jealous and enraged, grabbed her by the hair and dragged her around the house.

He threw her — naked — out the door and onto the ground. She called 911. The other three left.

Arriving deputies saw a vehicle that had been wrecked in some trees. The other couple both appeared to be in pain from the crash. They didn’t know where the jealous boyfriend went, they said.

MARCH

Officers responded to a complaint in the 2900 block of West University Drive that a woman was living in a travel trailer in a motel parking lot. They found the woman and the trailer, which had been reported stolen.

The woman had no proof of ownership for the van she was driving, either. She said she was buying the van and had borrowed the trailer.

The woman was taken to jail on outstanding warrants. A search of the trailer turned up a bag of methamphetamine and a glass pipe.

APRIL

Police received several calls from around Denton about a van speeding through neighborhoods at around 100 mph one afternoon. The van had the name of a child care center on the side.

Officers caught the van in the 8000 block of Warshon Street, and the driver and a passenger ran.

The officers pursued them over barbed wire fences and creeks and finally caught one man, who said the other man wanted to steal a truck to go for a joy ride. The owner of the child care center said someone broke a window and stole the van.

MAY

Employees of a fast-food restaurant in the 200 block of North Loop 288 called police when a customer became unruly.

A couple came into the restaurant and ordered a dessert, according to the report. When the employee handed it over, the man complained that it didn’t look like it did in television advertisements. He called the employee a racial epithet and a profane name.

The employee gave the man his money back and asked for the food back. The man knocked it off the counter and onto another customer. Police cited him for trespassing.

JUNE

A 30-year-old man was taken to a Dallas hospital after suffering two gunshot wounds in a Paloma Creek home.

Denton County sheriff’s deputies responded about 12:45 a.m. They saw a man stumbling out of the house covered in blood.

He told them he lived in the house with his girlfriend until a few weeks ago. He said he knocked on the door and no one answered. He remembered the code to open the garage door and used it to enter the house. He went up the stairs, he said, and was met at the master bedroom door by the woman’s new boyfriend, who was pointing a gun at the intruder.

He said he ran into a closet and was shot twice: once in the arm and once in the leg.

The woman who owns the house said she heard someone pound on the door and enter the house.

She said she began screaming at him to get out of her house. She said he kept coming up the stairs, pushed her out of the way and entered the bedroom.

The woman said the man walked to the closet where he knew she kept weapons. At that point the woman’s new boyfriend, who was in the bedroom, shot him, she said.

JULY

A man called Denton County sheriff’s deputies and confessed to stealing property from his neighbor and friend.

The man said the friend’s brother borrowed money from him and then left town. He wanted the money back, so he went to the friend’s house in the 1300 block of Kingston Place in the Aubrey area.

No one was at home, he said, and he took a flat-screen TV and two video game systems to account for the money.

When the friend came home, he confronted his neighbor, who lied about taking the property. The burglary victim threatened to burn down the man’s house, so he called 911.

Deputies took the burglary victim to jail.

The first man wanted to drop the charges, return the TV and “do the right thing,” he said. The friend would not press burglary charges against him.

AUGUST

A woman reported to Denton County sheriff’s deputies that her stepson shoved her against a wall, putting a knot on her head and causing her pain.

The woman said she caught the 16-year-old having sex with the family dog in their home in the Krum area and tried to stop him, resulting in the assault.

Deputies issued a Class C assault citation to the teen. His father objected, according to the report, saying he would be the one who would have to pay the fine.

SEPTEMBER

A 14-year-old boy told Denton County sheriff’s deputies that his grandmother assaulted him with a flip-flop sandal when he wouldn’t get out of bed the previous morning in the 1600 block of Nighthawk in the Little Elm area.

The boy said she tried to awaken him at 6 a.m. and he didn’t want to get up. She poured three glasses of water on him, and he still refused to rise. She slapped him on the side of the face and that didn’t work, so she hit him with the flip-flop, he said. His nose bled and his ear hurt, he said.

OCTOBER

A door-to-door salesman stole a check from a mailbox, according to a police report.

A man called 911 from the 2300 block of Palmer Street. He said someone rang his doorbell and he could see a man on his doorstep. He did not open the door because he believed the man was a salesman, and the man finally walked away.

The man remembered that he had placed an envelope containing a check in his mailbox earlier, and he realized it was gone. An arriving officer spotted the salesman walking down the street. He stopped him and asked what he was doing in the neighborhood.

The magazine salesman did not have a permit to operate door to door in Denton. The officer found the victim’s envelope in the salesman’s pocket. It had been opened and the check was crumpled up inside.

“Now how did that get there?” the salesman asked.

The officer arrested the salesman.

NOVEMBER

Burglars in the 8400 block of Clear River stole a man’s beer and returned the empties, according to a police report.

The man said he arrived home and noticed that the door to the refrigerator in his garage was ajar. A case of Shiner beer and five cans of Coors Light were missing, he said.

The next morning, he found stacked neatly on his front porch the case of empty cans and five crushed Coors cans.

DECEMBER

A woman struck a 5-year-old boy after he shot her in the face with a Nerf Batman Launcher, the boy’s mother told police.

The mother said she was at a gymnastics class in the 400 block of South Elm Street when she heard yelling in another room. She rushed to find out what was happening.

A 42-year-old woman was yelling at her son, saying, “You’re going to be a murderer when you grow up!”

Witnesses told the mother the woman struck the boy in the shoulder with her hand. The woman said the boy shot her in the face with his toy that fires soft, foam rubber balls.

The boy admitted hitting the woman in the face but said it was an accident.

The mother confronted the suspect, who stuck out her tongue and left. Witnesses heard the woman’s little girl asking her if she was going to jail, according to the police report.

DONNA FIELDER can be reached at 940-566-6885. Her e-mail address is dfielder@dentonrc.com.