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BCSO reports: Woman prepares bath in wrong house
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From Bryan County Sheriff ’s Office reports: 

Criminal trespass: An Ellabell man reported Jan. 9 someone was in his house. When deputies got there, he told them “he heard someone in his house and went to investigate. He located an unknown female, with a small dog, in the bathroom. The unknown female was running water in the bath and was preparing to get in.”

The man said he “asked her what she was doing in his house and she said she was meeting someone there. He told her that it was his house and she must have the wrong house. He said that she picked up her dog and exited the house.”

The man said she walked through the woods to a nearby trailer park. He also said he recognized her from a nearby Parker’s, but didn’t know her name. Deputies looked for the woman, but didn’t find her.

Simple assault: A Richmond Hill couple went to the sheriff’s office Jan. 10, where the boyfriend said his girlfriend “looked at his internet browsing history and found where he had been watching porn,” a report said. “He stated that she accused him of going on to ‘Adult Friend Finder’ style websites and talking with other women, as well as cheating on her. He stated that she became agitated and hit him approximately three times with a comb.”

The deputy noted he saw a bruise and swelling, “which, (the complainant) stated, was where she hit him on the arm.”

The boyfriend also said his girlfriend threatened to take their children and leave. He didn’t want to press charges.

The girlfriend said she looked on her boyfriend’s phone and “saw messages that he had exchanged with other women. She stated that she became agitated, and that he grabbed her to calm her down. She advised me that he did not hurt her when he grabbed her. She stated that when he released her, she threw something at him but was unsure of what it was. She informed me that she ‘probably did’; hit him with it.”

She didn’t want to press charges either.

The boyfriend said he’d leave the house for the night. The deputy told both of them how to get a warrant if they decided to later.

Unruly juvenile: A deputy responded Jan. 14 to a Richmond Hill address regarding a teenage girl who “has been very unruly by not speaking to them when they try to talk to her,” and “harasses the animals by purposely clipping their nails too low so they bleed,” and “stealing items from them and rubbed cat litter and cat feces along the outside and inside their vehicle.”

The parents said the girl is seeing a counselor and takes medications, and the deputy talked to the child who told him “she sometimes can’t control herself.”

Unruly juvenile 2: A deputy was sent Jan. 13 to a Richmond Hill address, where he met a woman who “advised me to take her son that she did not want him in the house anymore,” a report said.

The deputy “advised her that we were not in the business of taking juveniles,” then asked what the kid was doing. The mother said he was being “very disrespectful to her and his grandmother. He was cursing and yelling at them.”

The deputy went inside to talk to the boy, but he had “jumped out his bedroom window and was nowhere to be found,” the report said. The deputy checked the neighborhood but didn’t find the kid, but his mother wanted a report made and she wanted to sign a juvenile petition. She also said he had an upcoming court date.

Damage to property: An Ellabell man reported Jan. 13 that about a month ago a driver backed a cement truck “onto his property and over the culvert for his driveway. (Complainant) advised that the weight of the cement truck collapsed his culvert.”

Since that happened, “the area floods during periods of rain,” the complainant told the deputy, adding that he talked to one of the cement company’s employees but the issue was unresolved. He called deputies because the same company was “currently working down the road from him at this time,” so the complainant and the deputy went to talk to them. After some discussion, the complainant was told it was a civil matter and he’d have to take it to court.

Theft: A deputy was sent Jan. 10 to a South Bryan Parker’s convenience store regarding an air pump that had been broken into. There has been a string of them in the area, and a couple was stopped later and turned over to Effingham County authorities. It made local TV news.

Matter of record: A Richmond Hill woman reported Jan. 11 that she “is a personal fitness trainer and she advertises her services on a website of personal trainers.”

She told the deputy she recently got a text from someone “wanting to hire her to train his children.” The woman said she “recognized the text as a scam due to the amount of money he was willing to pay and stating he would pay a limo for transportation.”

But she said “what concerned her was one of the texts he sent,” which told her he knew where she lived and “that not too far away,” the report said. The woman didn’t know how the man got her address and wanted it documented.

Road rage: A Richmond Hill woman reported Jan. 8 that she was “driving through the new roundabout location at Belfast River Road and Harris Trail Road and had got behind a slow moving vehicle that had also stopped in the roundabout and then started moving very slowly,” a report said. “The woman said the vehicle behind her “started blowing the horn and waving his arms at her,” and so she pulled over to let him go by.

“(Instead), the vehicle exited the roadway also and the driver got out and approached her driver’s side yelling and waving his arms. (She) then pointed her pepper spray towards the other driver (he’s named in the report) … (who) then backed away from the vehicle and got back in his own vehicle and left the area. (The complainant) called 911 and followed toe vehicle to Oak Point off of Belfast Keller and (the man) came towards (her) with a large stick.”

The woman waited there for a deputy, and so did the man, who claimed “he didn’t do everything (the woman) stated and offered his apology to her.”

The man said “he was upset because (she) was brake checking him.”

Brake checking? Is that what you do when someone tailgates you?

Prowling: A Richmond Hill couple reported Jan. 11 that shots were fired from a silver car. The couple said they had video of a man getting out of a silver car and walking up to their front door, where he stayed for about five minutes “before walking behind one of their vehicles and remaining there.” Then he went back to his car and drove down the road toward Strathy Hall, then about five to 10 minutes later heard shots. They were unsure if “the shots they heard was related to the subject on their property.”

The deputy didn’t find any shell casings “on the roadway, driveway or in the yard,” and spoke to “two neighbors who stated that they did not hear anything that sounded like gunshots.”

Simple assault: Deputies were sent to an Ellabell address regarding a loud argument, and when they got there a complainant told them “(a female) came out of the front door and started screaming they are smoking marijuana, got upset because no one saved her any and then pushed (the complainant) back and was warned not to do it again.”

The complainant “stated (the female) approached her again in an aggressive manner that is when her son … tried to protect his mother by grabbing (the female) pushing her down to the ground and striking her in the face with both hands.”

The female in question said “she went to the back door wondering where everyone was then she went to the front door and found everyone smoking marijuana, she yelled out loud that they are smoking marijuana, that is when (the complainant’s son) grabbed her pulled her to the ground and started punching her with his fist in the face and when she was on the ground he used his knees on her hitting her on the side of the head and body.”

In a separate report dated Jan. 9, the complainant reported lost morphine, and claimed the female “had to have taken the medications, to use or to sell.”

The female “also stated (the complainant) was cheering her son along by telling him to get her, beat her,” the report said, before he “left the scene with marijuana, heading back to South Carolina to his father’s residence.”

The woman had a swollen right eye, etc., but refused to be taking by EMS to the hospital.

Everyone was “advised to stay away from one another and if they wanted to pursue it any further to go to the Bryan County Magistrate Office.”

Animal attack: Deputies were sent to a Richmond Hill address Jan. 9 “in reference to a female that fell down and was attacked by her dog.” The complainant told deputies her mother “fell down in the garage while locking the doors. When she fell down the German Shepherd that she owns started attacking her arms.”

A deputy saw the woman had “several lacerations along both of her arms and legs near her ankles. (She) kept saying the dog tried to kill her.” EMS came on scene and treated the woman, who refused to be taken to the hospital. Animal Control came and took the dog.

Theft: A Richmond Hill man reported Jan. 9 that “the residence directly behind his church has been stealing water from the rear of his church … using the churches water hose.”

The complainant and the deputy then went to talk to the man who lives behind the church. “(He) stated he did not take any water and did show me he had water at his residence.”

The deputy then asked the complainant if he’d seen the man take any water.

“Complainant advised he did not see (the man) take any water this time only suspected him of doing this, nor did he see the suspect take a light bulb from the rear of the church.”

The deputy suggested the man stay away from the back of the church.

He agreed.

Simple battery: A deputy was sent to an Ellabell convenience store Jan. 20 where a woman said “after she had finished checking out … she was standing near the front door inside the business looking at her phone. While standing there she felt someone ‘grab her behind’ on their way out the store. (She) looked up to see that it was a middle aged white male that she had seen in the area before, but did not know who he was.” The woman said she at first didn’t know what to do because it taken her by surprise and embarrassed her, but after talking to her attorney she was told to go back and see if they had “surveillance footage.”

They did, and the deputy saw it. He wrote “the incident occurred exactly as (the woman) had described to me.” It’s being investigated.



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