Taken from Richmond Hill Police Department reports:

Jan. 19

An officer sent to a Carter Street home regarding the theft of an $800 money order cleared the case quickly, albeit with a little help from the complainant’s wife.

Police were called when the complainant couldn’t find the money order he said he’d placed in a nightstand by his bed and no one else in the house knew what had happened to it.

“(Complainant) stated the money order had the receipt with it and was in the night stand with his (bank card). I observed the night stand and the drawer in which the money order was placed,” the responding officer reported. “There were several other items of value in the drawer and in the night stand that were not taken or tampered with according to (complainant) … (complainant) stated he wished to prosecute.”

The officer asked if the complainant wanted to check around the night stand one more time before he filed an “official report of a theft,” and the complainant’s wife “stated she had already told him to look under the night stand but he had not.”

The man looked. The money order was under the nightstand. Case closed.

“(Complainant) stated since the money order was located he did not believe it as stolen and did not want to report a theft,” the report said.

Jan. 16

Two officers were sent to a shoplifting call at Dollar General on Highway 17. There, they met with the store manager, and the shoplifter, a 60-year-old Richmond Hill woman “who had no previous criminal history at all.”

“At the time the store manager had recovered some property and had observed on the video that (the woman) had removed the tags,” the report said. “(The manager) was in the process of having (the woman) assist her in locating the removed tags for a multi colored lanyard.”

While walking through the store, “(the woman) then attempted to throw a sticker tag into a coffee cup on a shelf above her head. It was recovered and the item she was fumbling with in her sweat shirt pocket was recovered, which was a roll of black electrical tape which matched the tag she had just attempted to discard.”

The officer then noticed the woman’s open purse “showed several other items which she attempted to push back inside. I stopped her and began to remove her purse from her to prevent her from removing any more tags.”

Eventually, police had to put the woman in handcuffs, taken to the manager’s office and patted down _- “at which time a container of crazy glue was located in her sweatshirt pocket which had already been removed from the packaging. An inspection of her purse resulted in the recovery of air freshener, Orajel and Secret Outlast deodorant. I was advised by the manager that she had recovered two Valentine’s Day cards from her prior to our arrival.”

The stuff cost $20.76 with tax. The woman was “escorted to my vehicle along with her grocery items that she actually purchased,” the report said, noting that because she had a clean record, “she was cited and banned from the store,” and given a court date.

Jan. 17

An officer was sent to Clydes around 1 p.m. to deal with a report of a “possible Alzheimer’s subject that had been picked up on the roadway and was now at Clyde’s Market,” a report said.

There, the officer met with a complainant, a Savannah woman who picked up a pedestrian on Highway 17 near Love’s Seafood because “she was concerned about the subject and wanted to get her help.”

The “subject” knew what day it was and where she was and had a previous encounter with (another RHPD officer) several weeks prior,” the report said. “She provided a birth certificate and New York identification card. No medical alert identifiers or next of kin information was on her person. Her only belongings were in her purse and she stated her clothes were left on a bus.”

And then, this: “(She) stated she came south for the winter and was heading back to (a Park Avenue address) in Manhattan.”

The RHPD officer contacted the New York Police Department and learned the woman was in their system, but there was no other information available. The officer was asked to give the woman a ride to the Salvation Army Emergency Shelter, where the staff was familiar with her. The woman didn’t stick around there, either, though.

“(The woman) departed the facility on her own accord after being transported. A (Savannah Chatham Metro Police Department) officer in the area as notified of the situation.”