Police Reports

Rincon

• Police are investigating the theft of $250 in cash, and of $13,500
in jewelry from a Rincon residence. The homeowner said he and his
wife had gone out of town, and left their teenage son at home alone.
Of course, he had several friends over during the weekend, and that’s
when they believe the theft occurred.
• A WalMart security guard caught a Savannah man walking out the door
with $165 worth of assorted items he had not paid for. He detained
the man until Officers arrived. They took him to jail on shoplifting
charges.
• Another man contacted Police after his home was burglarized. This
thief was obviously familiar with the homeowner, as he stole $70 cash
that had been hidden beneath a telephone book, and $6,100 cash that
was hidden in a silver box in the attic. (Dear thief, do you
seriously think this guy’s gonna let you get away with that? Think
about it. How many people do you think knew about the silver box in
the attic? You and maybe one or two others. And if they’ve got
legitimate alibis, that leaves you doing how many years hard labor
with a cell mate that calls you sweetie pie...)

Pooler

• An Officer stopped a Honda Passport on South Rogers Street when he
noticed the vehicle didn’t have a license plate displayed. As he
approached the driver, he then noticed the tag taped to the rear
windshield, obscured by the window tinting. The driver, a Kansas man,
was driving on a suspended license and the Honda was turned over to a
licensed driver.
• Officers responded to I-95 southbound for a report of a Chevy
Suburban trying to wreck an armored vehicle. The driver of the
Chevrolet, a Virginia man, told Police the driver of the armored
vehicle, a Savannah man, had a case of road rage, had been tailgating
him, and tried going around him while he was changing lanes. Both
drivers were dismissed, though they weren’t allowed to leave at the
same time. (I realize that wrecking an armored vehicle might lead to
some dollar bills floating around the interstate, but I’d think it
would also lead to a trip to the hospital for the driver of the
vehicle that gets run over by the armored car!)
• Shortly after noon, Officers were advised to be on the lookout for
a green pickup leaving Garden City that had been involved in a
burglary. A short time later, an Officer spotted the pickup and made
a traffic stop on Hwy 80 near the Food Lion. A Port Wentworth man and
a Garden City man were arrested for burglary when the Garden City
Officers arrived and verified that several items in the bed of the
pickup had been stolen from a Garden City home. (Hooray for the good
guys! Now, can we have a public flogging????)
• A Savannah man told Officers he’d just left the giant retail store
with 6 just-purchased DVD’s in a white bag. He set the bag on the top
of his truck, then helped his Momma load her purchases in her
vehicle, just a few spaces over. When he returned to his truck, his
DVD’s were gone. Security personnel have turned over the surveillance
video footage to detectives. (And hopefully they’ll remember to pass
along any pictures of the thief so we can put his picture in the
paper for our readers to know what a scumbag looks like!)
• A woman filed a report telling Officers that her ex-boyfriend had
shown up at her home uninvited, wanting to visit with their young
daughter. She said the man gave her $25, telling her that was her
child support money. When she told him $25 wasn’t any kind of child
support these days, he became angry and disorderly. He’d left by the
time the Officers arrived. (I’m guessing a Judge will bring this guy
around to the real world pretty soon...)
• A woman found that someone had broken into her Jeep Grand Cherokee,
and she is now missing her purse, several credit cards, and two
checkbooks. Her bank had called her by 11am and advised her that her
credit cards were being used in Hardeeville, then in Walterboro, and
then in Florence, S.C.
• A Savannah woman told Officers she was northbound on I-95 in her
Ford Escort when the hood flew up, shattering her windshield.
• An Officer clocked a Chrysler van at 82mph in a 65mph zone of I-95
and made a traffic stop. The South Carolina man was taken to jail
when dispatch advised his license was suspended.

Port Wentworth

• Around 11pm, an Officer was running stationary radar in the median
of Hwy 21 and clocked a silver Oldsmobile at 60mph in the 45mph zone.
He initiated a traffic stop, but the driver turned onto a side road
and then accelerated away. The Officer followed and saw the car slow
down and leave the roadway, and then crash into a fence. He pulled up
quickly and found a passenger in the front seat and three back seat
passengers. The front seat passenger tried telling him the driver had
run off into the woods, but the Officer knew he was lying. Finally, a
woman in the back seat admitted that she’d been driving and that her
license was suspended. She was arrested for eleven charges, including
possession of marijuana, reckless driving, fleeing to elude, and
possession of drug related objects. The man in the passenger seat was
arrested on a warrant from Hall County and obstruction.
• Members of the Effingham County drug unit alerted members of the
Chatham County Narcotics Unit about a woman in a local hotel doing
drugs. The CNT notified the Port Wentworth Officer to help with the
arrest. A Rincon woman was arrested, but not before ratting on a
Savannah man who happened to be walking by her room trying to leave
the hotel. She said he was the one she’d bought her drugs from, and
he was arrested for holding two bags of cocaine and one bag of
marijuana.
• Officers were asked to check on an abandoned car in a convenience
store parking lot. They found out the car had been stolen out of
Savannah.
• Just before 11pm, an Officer noticed a car on the side of Hwy 30
with it’s flashers on. He pulled over to see if the driver needed
help. The young woman explained that other drivers were flashing
their bright lights at her so she’d pulled over to see what might be
wrong with her car. About that time, the Officer noticed the odor of
the burnt marijuana coming from inside her car. She and another young
woman were soon on their way to jail for possession of marijuana
charges.
• Around 4:30am, an Officer noticed the silver Mustang creeping along
at a very slow speed on Hwy 21. When the driver crossed the
centerline twice, he made a traffic stop and asked the Savannah woman
for her license. “It’s suspended because of an unpaid ticket,” she
explained. The Officer then noticed the odor of alcohol on her
breath, and she was soon under arrest for DUI and driving while
suspended. The car was set to be towed, and the Officer completed his
inventory, finding marijuana and cocaine in the car. Those charges
were added to her citations.

Effingham County Sheriff’s Office

• Deputies were alerted to a possible drunk driver pulling out of a
convenience store parking lot on Hwy 17. Deputies spotted the Ford
Ranger near Sandhill Road and made a traffic stop. The Deputy was
overwhelmed by the odor of alcohol coming from the pickup. He decided
the Savannah man should take a field sobriety test, and started with
the one where you have to follow the Deputy’s finger without moving
your head. This man just stared straight ahead the entire time. The
Deputy couldn’t perform some of the other tests with the man, but
when he tested positive for alcohol, he was arrested for DUI and
taken to jail. There, he blew a .296. With that high a level of
alcohol, the man was taken for treatment at Effingham Hospital
emergency room. While waiting for him to sober up enough to go to
jail, the doctor also treated the man for a broken rib which he
apparently didn’t realize he had.
• Deputies were dispatched to a Springfield residence where a woman
explained that her ex-husband moved out back in January and took her
computer with him. She’s recently been informed by the rental store
that she’s behind on her payments and they want their computer back.
She’s just realized that, since her name is on the rental contract,
she’s liable for the payments whether she has the computer or not.
• A man filed a report after one of his neighbors shot his horse with
a shotgun. Thankfully, a witness saw the man shoot it and agreed to
testify.
• Shortly before 8pm, a Deputy was dispatched to a Hwy 30 location
and found a Mazda Protegé in a ditch. The driver was arrested for DUI.
• Deputies responded to an ongoing situation between two neighbors
which flared up again with one of them riding past the other’s house
on the public driveway. This time, a woman complained that her
neighbor got out and came onto her property, using a pair of
binoculars to look through her window at her as she breast fed her
baby. (You gotta draw the line somewhere, and that looks like a
pretty good place to start drawing!)
• Deputies responded to a Guyton residence for a report of a naked
man breaking out windows in vehicles at the home. The man and his
partner had left the scene in a black pickup before Deputies could
get there.
• Deputies responded to a home for a report of someone firing
gunshots in the back yard. The man, obviously intoxicated, said he
hadn’t fired his gun, and his wife backed him up on that. In the
interest of public safety, Deputies went into his home and seized his
gun, saying that he couldn’t have a gun with him while he’s
intoxicated. He was advised he could pick it up at the Sheriff’s
Office Monday morning.
• A Deputy was northbound on Courthouse Road just before midnight
when a Ford Taurus pulled up to the stop sign at R.B. Baker Pond
Road. The driver stopped for the stop sign, then pulled out in front
of the Deputy. The Deputy then made a traffic stop, and the driver
was arrested for DUI.
• A Guyton man filed a complaint after someone took his front porch
rockers and put them on his neighbor across the street’s front porch.
The man suspects those rotten kids in the neighborhood again...
• Deputies responded to a Springfield residence for a domestic
dispute. As they pulled up, a man in the front yard explained that
his wife wouldn’t let him inside the house. About that time, the wife
comes out of the house onto the porch and tells the Deputies she
won’t let her husband inside because he’s been drinking again, adding
that when he comes home drunk, he cusses her out in front of the
children and she wasn’t going through that again this night. The
matter was resolved when the Deputies realized the man had a warrant
for his arrest for probation violation. (You gotta love a happy enny!)
• An Eden woman told Deputies she was riding down Hwy 80 westbound
behind a pickup moving furniture when a dresser drawer fell out the
back of the pickup in front of her. She didn’t have time to avoid
striking it, and suffered a flat right tire from the ordeal.
• While on patrol, a Deputy passed by the intersection of Old River
Road and Hwy 80 and noticed two trucks that appeared to have had an
accident. The passenger of the second truck was outside his vehicle
yelling at the driver of the first truck. The Deputy got out and
instructed the passenger to return to his truck. He then spoke with
the driver of the first truck, who explained he was waiting for
traffic to clear when the second truck nearly struck him and the man
got out and began cursing at him. The Deputy then spoke with the
driver of the second truck, who was soon arrested for DUI thanks to
his passenger.

Garden City

• Shortly before 8am, an Officer noticed a group of young men
standing together at the bus stop. In particular, he noticed that one
of them was hiding a bottle of beer in his pants pocket. He decided
to investigate, and the man was soon on his way to jail for public
intoxication after blowing a .237. (At 7:50am! Geez! And this guy
didn’t have a beer gut, he has a “Liquid Grain Storage Facility!”)
• Police conducted a safety check on the I-16 Westbound exit ramp to
Chatham Parkway. Around 2:40am, a woman pulled up in a gold Acura
Legend. She was asked for her license and insurance, and told the
Officer she’d left it at the gas station just a few minutes ago. She
then provided the Officer with her name and birth date, which came
back not on file. The Officer asked her to spell her name again, and
she gave a completely different spelling of her name, claiming she
was nervous and had messed up. She was soon arrested for giving false
identity information to law enforcement, and for driving while
suspended.
• An Officer was westbound on Hwy 80 behind a Ford pickup that had a
cracked windshield. He made a stop and learned the driver had a
suspended license. He then learned the man was also a convicted
felon, and after a search of the truck turned up a thirty eight
special, the man was arrested for possession of a firearm by a
convicted felon.
• An Officer made a traffic stop just before 2am on Hwy 17 when the
Honda Accord in front of him ran off the road three times. The driver
explained that he was hurrying home to tend to his sick one month old
child. The Officer took the man’s information, since he didn’t have a
license, and called it in to dispatch. While waiting on the response,
he could see the man was pounding his head against the steering
wheel. Dispatch advised that the man had no information on file, so
the Officer walked back up to the driver. This time, the man said he
just wanted to get home to his nine month old son.The man was soon on
his way to jail for giving false identity information to a law
enforcement officer and driving while suspended.
• An Officer was parked on the side of Dean Forest Road when a man
walked up and complained that a man in a nearby shopping center had
thrown a beer bottle at him, striking him in the shoulder. The
Officer followed the man back to the shopping center and soon saw the
truck the offender was now a passenger in. He got out and spoke with
the passenger and the driver, and the driver was soon arrested for DUI.
• A detective was undercover working a neighborhood where several
burglaries had occurred when he noticed a Chevy Impala pulling in and
out of driveways. He called for a uniformed Officer to stop the
Impala and identify the driver. An Officer turned onto the side
street in time to see the Impala backing out of a driveway. He made a
traffic stop and the driver couldn’t produce a driver’s license. It
had been suspended for failure to appear, and he was soon on his way
to jail.

Bryan County Sheriff’s Department

• Lots of DUI’s in Bryan County last week... Shortly before 11pm, a
Deputy spotted a blue Geo Metro southbound on Hwy 17 withno
headlights on. He made a traffic stop and asked the driver if he’d
been drinking. “I’ve had one Budweiser,” the man said. He failed all
three portions of his field sobriety test and blew a .151 at the
Richmond Hill Police Department, and was taken to jail for DUI. (So,
when did Budweiser start making gallon size bottles?)
• Around 2:40am, a Deputy was on Hwy 119 in Pembroke when he stopped
a young man for having an improper exhaust on his Mazda pickup. The
young man was soon on his way to jail for underage drinking and DUI.
• A man filed a report after he recently received a letter from a
collection agency. Someone had used his social security number to
obtain a credit card and several loans. The amount stolen so far is
over $3600.
• Just after 6pm, a Deputy turned onto a side road from Hwy 144 and
noticed a silver Oldsmobile stopped in the roadway. He pulled in
behind the car, which attempted to pull away until he activated his
lights and made a traffic stop. While waiting on the driver to find
his license and insurance, the Deputy noted the odor of alcohol
coming from the car. The driver tried to explain that he was having
trouble with his car running hot. The Deputy questioned him about his
drinking that day, and the man said “I’m not going to lie. I’ve had
two or three beers tonight.” He was soon on his way to jail for DUI
after blowing a .137.
• A woman was stopped on Kilkenny Road after she failed to dim her
bright lights for a Deputy passing by. She was taken to jail after
blowing a .127.
• Around 3:30am, an anonymous caller alerted Deputies to a drunk
driver in a black Dodge pickup. The caller was still behind the truck
as it left the highway and began cutting donuts in the median of Hwy
17. A Deputy arrived pretty quickly and the Hinesville man was soon
on his way to jail for DUI.
• Another convenience store fell victim to a man cashing fake
Department of Transportation paychecks. The convenience store is out $625.