From Bryan County Sheriff’s Office reports: 

Public drunk, false name: A 58-year-old Savannah woman was arrested Feb. 20 for harassing customers at a grocery store in Blitchton.

Deputies were called to the store on Highway 80 because the woman had been outside for a few hours “asking customers for money, cigarettes or a ride.”

The woman was gone when deputies got there, but she was found across the road at a convenience store. The woman smelled strongly of alcohol, and “she was unsteady on her feet and slurring her speech so severely that it was nearly impossible to understand what she was saying,” a report said.

Eventually, after “many attempts, deputies understood that she was attempting to get to Screven County.” She also gave them a name that didn’t show up on computers. And, she “did not have a phone, any money or knowledge of anyone she could contact to come pick her up.”

Deputies asked her how she wound up stranded and “she advised that she got into an argument with her boyfriend. This boyfriend then put her out (at the store) and left her,” the report said.

When deputies asked her why they argued, she “loudly proclaimed” it was because she wouldn’t perform a certain sexual act, then “immediately followed this statement with, ‘I would have though, if he had been more patient.’” She then gave deputies phone numbers for a daughter in Savannah and a son in Effingham County, but neither was able to come get her. “(She) became increasingly loud and aggressive toward deputies,” the report continued, so she was arrested and taken to jail. There, authorities learned her name and that she “numerous aliases.”

Drugs, etc: Same Blitchton store, different incident. Deputies were called to the store Feb. 20 regarding a man passed out behind the wheel of his vehicle, which was parked running in the store parking lot. Deputies had a tough time getting the man to wake up, and EMS was called. Ultimately, the man was awakened a bit, though he “was silent and stared forward, as if deputies were not present.”

Deputies found the man’s wallet in his lap and found his license for him, and with “slow, slurred and confused” speech, the man “began explaining that he recalled driving for Uber, but was not sure how he got in this parking lot.”

Deputies also found a clear plastic zip top bag with “what appeared to be some form of illegal substance,” that they “recognized as suspected heroin.”

The man was arrested after his field sobriety test had to be stopped because he couldn’t do the walk and turn. A complainant told deputies she saw the man drive into the parking lot “and thought it strange that he travelled across other parking stalls,” and “observed (the man) running around the parking lot in what appeared to be a euphoric state. She became alarmed when he passed out in the vehicle, so she called 911.”

The man allegedly admitted to deputies he was taking a mixture of fentanyl, heroin and “molly,” another term for ecstasy. The man also said he was addicted to opioids, the report said.

Property damage: A North Bryan man reported Feb. 18 a tow truck ran over his septic tank. The man was uncertain if it was damaged, but said there was no reason for the truck to go into his back yard because the vehicle he wanted towed was on the side of the house. The man said he was supposed to call the tow truck company owner Feb. 19.

Property damage: A South Bryan man reported Feb. 19 a plumbing van backed into his mailbox. The deputy contacted the driver of the plumbing van, who said he didn’t know he’d hit the mailbox and came back to the home “as soon he was made aware of the incident.” An agreement was made to fix the mailbox.

Property damage: A Buckhead East resident reported Feb. 19 someone came in and damaged the upstairs of his home. The man said he’d last been home Feb. 17, and everything was fine. A deputy noted upstairs dry wall damaged, and the thermostat had been knocked off the wall and thrown down the stairs. There was also damage to a window, a door and its frame. The man said the damage amounted to about $2,000.

Property damage; A man reported Feb. 18 he was backing up his “issued vehicle” when he hit the side of the Bryan County Fire Department station in Ellabell. The vehicle, a 2020 Dodge Ram registered to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, had a tow hitch and it was what hit the building, knocking a hole in the siding. There was no damage to the ATF’s vehicle.

DUI: A deputy was on patrol around 10:10 p.m. Feb. 17 on Highway 280 when he saw a car sitting in the road. The deputy pulled up behind the vehicle and saw there were no brake lights on, “indicating the vehicle was in park,” and as he got closer he saw “a small female child in a car seat in the back of the car and there was another small female child in the passenger side of the car curled up in the seat.”

In the driver’s seat was a woman “who had the seat layed back and appeared to be asleep.”

The deputy knocked on the window, but the woman, who has a Statesboro address, didn’t wake up until “the little girl in the passenger seat shook the female and she woke up and turned over in the seat and then she saw (the deputy).”

After asking the woman for her license, the deputy asked her to step out of the car and as the woman did so the deputy smelled “a very strong odor of alcohol coming from her breath and the vehicle,” the report continued, noting the woman had trouble standing. She also kept telling the deputy she didn’t do anything wrong, cussed at him and refused to take a breath test.

Deputies were able to contact the grandmother, who came to get the kids. The vehicle was towed. The driver was taken to Bryan County Jail, where “she asked the jailers (and deputy) to get her kids out of the car and (the deputy) told her that her mom had picked up the kids.”

“She had a very hard time following instructions and refused to give (deputies) some of her information. She was placed in a holding cell where she kept hitting the door for some time.”