Feb. 7
Theft by taking - felony
Civil matter
Deputies met with a complainant at the Eden post office who said his girlfriend had taken medications from his medicine cabinet. He said he believed she took the pills because he has not taken them and he doesn’t know where else they went. He also said she is always “strung out,” which leads him to believe she did something with his medications. He said he had $100,000 in gold he received overseas and she took that as well. He said every time he calls her to talk about getting his belongings, she laughs at him. A witness said he has seen the complainant call the suspect and she hangs up on him when he calls. The witness said he tries to call her and she also hangs up on him.
Feb. 9
Civil matter
Deputies went to a home on a report of a possible absconded sex offender. When they arrived, the potential suspect said a neighbor had called her and left her a message, advising she was calling the ECSO to report she was a possible absconded sex offender after seeing her name on a local television station as being wanted in another county. Deputies got in touch with the other county’s deputies and discovered the woman the neighbor wanted to report was not the woman they were looking for.
Feb. 13
Fraud
A man told deputies he noticed charges that he did not make on his bank account. He said he notified his bank of the suspect charges. The charges were made at stores around Atlanta.
Feb. 13
Damaged property
Deputies responded to a home where the landlord said his rental property had been destroyed. The carpet had been cut and there were several holes in the drywall. The tenant had been at the house the day before cleaning up after she moved out, but the landlord was not sure she had caused the damage.
Feb. 15
Damaged property
A woman said she was coming home from the store around 5 a.m. when something struck her windshield. She believes someone threw a rock and, when the object struck her vehicle, she ran off the road and struck several mailboxes.
Feb. 15
Wanted person - warrant service
Deputies went to a Rincon home on a warrant, and the suspect’s mother allowed them into the home. They found the suspect asleep on a couch and when he was awakened, he said to deputies, “Man, I knew y’all was coming. I’m ready to go.”
Feb. 16
Damage to property
A Guyton woman said she got home around 6 p.m. and discovered a BB-sized hole in her kitchen window. There was also a crack from the hole to the side of the window.
Feb. 18
Domestic dispute
Simple battery
A woman came to the sheriff’s office, telling deputies that she got into an argument with a man with whom she is in a relationship and the argument became physical. She said the altercation began after she spoke with people who resided with them, and her boyfriend said he did not want her talking to them. She said her boyfriend punched her in the head and threw her to the ground. A witness said he saw the victim fall to the ground, but he said it appeared she tripped over the dog. He also said he saw the suspect take a swing at the victim. He went to check on her and the boyfriend said everything was fine but also asked the witness to take the victim to her mother’s house.
Feb. 18
Disorderly house
Deputies responded to a house where a woman’s mother called about a domestic dispute that possibly had become physical. The daughter said she and her husband were arguing about him having to sign away custodial rights to his child. She said there was no physical altercation between them. She said while she and her husband argued, her cell phone rang, and she said her mother told her she could hear them arguing and was going to call the ECSO. The husband said he was upset because he had a custodial hearing and was going to lose rights to his child but there was no physical altercation.
Feb. 18
Fraud
A deputy was approached at a local convenience store by a man who wanted to report a possible fraud. The complainant said he received a call from someone identifying themselves as a tax investigator, and the caller ID showed a Washington, D.C., area code. The man on the phone said the complainant had not paid taxes for 2008-14 and if he didn’t pay, law enforcement would be notified to arrest him. The complainant said he was up-to-date on his tax obligations and he had just returned from a tax preparation agency.
Feb. 20
Threats
A woman said she let her cousin move in but they recently discovered he had been stealing wire from the residence and appeared to be under the influence of drugs. They took him to a Savannah hospital and left him there because they wanted him out of the house. The complainant said her cousin had been sending her and another man text messages that there would be payback. While deputies were at the house, the cousin called the other man and, on speaker phone, the complainant told her cousin he was no longer welcome and they were taking his clothes to his mother’s house. He seemed to accept the arrangement and then told them he wanted his money. At that mention, the speaker phone was turned off and the complainant started speaking to her cousin without having the deputies listen in on the conversation.
Feb. 20
Identity theft
A woman went to the sheriff’s office to report she received a call from a cable company about a past-due bill. She said she had never used that cable company for service, and the company told her someone had opened an account in her name in Savannah. The company representative read a Social Security number to the woman, and it was hers. She was told the company needed an incident report within 10 days to clear up the matter. She was provided with a case report card and also advised to contact the Social Security office and her banks.
Feb. 20
Theft by taking - misdemeanor
Criminal trespass
Deputies responded to a home on the report of a prowler. One of the residents said he awoke to a flashlight shining in his bedroom window and saw a man in a thick, black jacket and glasses. As he was on the phone with dispatchers, the man ran. Deputies and complainants searched around the house and discovered a motion sensor was missing. A deer cam image showed what the residents believe was the same man, and the woman of the house said it resembled her ex-boyfriend. Her ex lived with her for about two years and recently had been calling about the dog they shared and about her settlement.
Feb. 20
Theft by deception
A woman said she met a man on social media who said he was a soldier stationed in Nigeria. She eventually sent him $3,000 over the course of a month-long relationship, and then he asked her to meet with a woman in Savannah to send him more money. She stopped sending money and began receiving threats from the man, who claimed he was going to send someone from the base to kill her.
Feb. 22
Domestic dispute
Battery
A woman told deputies she and her husband had been arguing all night long. She was packing items in the car to leave when her husband tried to stop her. Her son said he saw his stepfather grab his mother’s arms, and he tried to separate them in order to protect his mother. That’s when he was struck in the head. The husband said the argument started when he discovered his wife had been in contact on social media with one of his friends, and he believed she was cheating on him. He confronted her about it and called her a “whore” and other names because he was angry and upset. He also said that during the argument, his wife threw a flashlight at him and hit him in the knee. He said he left his wife alone for a while after that until her son arrived. The dispute then continued and, as he was speaking to his wife, her son jumped him and the two men “tussled.” He said they fell to the floor, and his wife’s son hit his head on a television stand. The wife said she threw a flashlight at her husband because he would not stop calling her names. None of the parties involved wanted anyone to go to jail but they also did not know how best to calm the situation.
Feb. 22
DUI
Failure to maintain lane
Deputies were notified about a car driving the wrong way on Highway 21. The caller said they were able to get the driver’s attention and get him to drive on the correct side of the road. Deputies eventually stopped the car, and the driver said he was coming home from work in Port Wentworth. His speech was very thick and slurred. He also said he had just moved to the area and got lost on the back roads through Rincon. A street he named was inconsistent with the route he was coming from and where the caller advised he was traveling on the wrong side of the road. He said he had consumed two highballs and told deputies he knew he would fail both field sobriety tests and breathalyzers.
Feb. 22
Burglary - first degree (felony)
A landlord and a tenant said they saw two women enter the house and leave with a large box and duffle bag. The landlord said neither person was supposed to be on the property and had no business being there. Another resident noticed that various CDs and DVDs, a duffle bag with his clothes and toiletries, a smartphone and approximately $300 in cash were missing.
Feb. 22
Public drunkenness
Deputies were called to a house on the report of a man banging and kicking on a door. While en route, they were informed by dispatch that the complainant was armed and were later told the husband had the subject on the ground at gunpoint. The suspect said he was at home when he got into an argument with his “old lady” over a statement that he found and read accusing him of rape. He said he told a friend he didn’t feel right and hadn’t all day long and asked him to walk with him. He said he felt like he was being set up.
His friend lagged behind him and flashed a light toward the woods, and another flashlight flashed back, followed by a subject running out of the woods toward him. He said he felt he was being set up for a “beatdown” and ran to a woman’s house, and said that woman and her husband would corroborate his story. He said the husband gave him a ride to a nearby store, and the woman and her husband saw the men with flashlights on the ride. He started walking down the road when the two men with flashlights came toward him again.
He then ran to the house where deputies responded. The subject was jittery and shaking and his eyes were bloodshot. Deputies went to the first house the subject ran to and talked to the woman and her husband. They said he came up saying someone was chasing him but they did not see who it was and also that he would not look them in the eye and kept looking toward the road.
Deputies went to the subject‘s residence and spoke with the woman there who said she had been asleep all day and hadn’t spoken to the subject. Another resident at the house backed up her story. The other resident said the subject also had been talking about trap doors in the floor of the trailer and people living under it. The subject also said his girlfriend has been selling herself and he was letting her stay at his house because he felt sorry for her. He also believes she is setting him up so she can live in his trailer rent-free.
The subject was arrested for public drunkenness, having displayed symptoms of drug use, paranoia, nervousness, delusion and bloodshot eyes. Deputies have dealt with him on previous arrests for meth use. The subject also asked the deputy taking him to jail why he had the heat on in the patrol car. The deputy informed him he was running the air conditioner, not the heat.
Feb. 23
Possession of methamphetamine
Possession of a controlled substance
During a traffic stop for an obscured tag, a deputy noticed the smell of burned marijuana coming from the pickup’s cab. The deputy asked the driver about the odor of marijuana but he said he didn’t do drugs. He said he thought his passenger also didn’t do drugs but wasn’t sure. The driver said “there shouldn’t be” anything illegal in the truck, and the passenger, when asked about possible illegal items said, “not that I know of.” The deputy searched the cab and found a clear, round, yellowish container with 11 small portions of a plastic bag containing a clear, crystalline substance. Drug enforcement unit deputies were summoned.
