From Richmond Hill Police Department reports:
Traffic violations: An officer on patrol around 12:16 a.m. Feb. 3 spotted a man walking down the middle of Highway 144 near Fish Street “even though a sidewalk was present.” The officer tracked him down in the Goodwill parking lot, and asked for his ID – which the man said he didn’t have. The man then said he was 17 but gave a birthdate that would’ve made him 19, and “did not look to be any younger than 30,” the officer reported, adding that as they talked he “observed (the man) was holding a vehicle headlight bulb which he offered to me,” the report said.
“In my experience,” the officer continued. “when someone offers me something in that manner it usually means they shouldn’t have it to begin with.”
The man said he found it while he was out walking, and a check with dispatch showed the 34-year-old Savannah man wasn’t currently wanted but had a history of “several charges for Burglary, Entering Auto and Obstruction.”
The man was arrested for pedestrian in roadway and taken to jail. The headlight bulb was logged into evidence.
Obstruction: Police say a drunk man who was tased twice in a Highway 17 bar parking lot around 12:30 a.m. Jan. 27 still had to be restrained to keep him from driving away.
Officers were initially called to the bar “regarding a subject on scene who had previously been kicked out of the bar, but was now back on scene and causing problems.”
Witnesses pointed out the man standing by his pickup and told officers he was kicked out for trying to fight other customers and “reportedly left, drove around the parking lot, and then re-entered the bar.” The man was told to leave again, and went out and urinated in the parking lot.
While police were taking a witness statement, the man got into his pickup and backed out of his parking space and into a van at a nearby pizza place.
Listed in the report as a 49-year-old 5-foot-6, 240 pound white male from South Carolina, the man was pulled over in the parking lot, and got out. He told police he only had one drink – which prompted an officer to ask how big it was -- and initially complied with an officer’s instructions.
But when the officer tried to put cuffs on the man, the man changed his mind and tried to get back into his pickup despite efforts to restrain him. The officer then pulled out his Taser and told the man to put his hands behind his back.
“Unfortunately, (he) just stood by the bed of his truck and did not comply with (the officer’s commands.),” the report said, going into detail about the tasing before the man was able to “regain control of his body as he pulled one of the probes off his clothing.”
Because the first tasing didn’t slow the man down, he was tased again, but that “did not cause any neuromuscular incapacitation,” and instead of obeying “repeated commands to put his hands behind his back, (the man) just began swatting at the probes/wires.”
The man appeared to try to get back into his truck, which led to more efforts to get him under control. When more officers arrived, the man was able to be put into handcuffs. Bryan County EMS was called to check him out. He was then taken to jail.
Traffic violations, marijuana: A 41-yearold Savannah woman driving an SUV around 2:14 a.m. Jan. 25 crossed the center line on Highway 17 near 144 and was pulled over.
She gave the officer a paper copy of her license “and began to ramble about the events of her evening … she would jump from topic to topic not making any sense,” the report said, which led the officer to suspect she might be under the influence of something other than alcohol, since he couldn’t smell any on her.
He asked the woman to get out of her car, and she put on her jacket and then took it off, and “was wearing a tank top, and her Breast (police capitalization) would come out of the shirt. (She) had to be told multiple times throughout the traffic stop to cover up.”
A Bryan County Sheriff’s Office deputy conducted a field sobriety test – she failed some of the tasks – and a search turned up 1.3 grams of suspected pot.
She was not charged with DUI “due to her appearing to have mental disabilities,” and when asked if she had anyone who could come pick her up said no. “She speaks to her mother through the wind and other family members are all around,” she told the officer, who told her the vehicle would have to be towed. She was then processed and let go with a court date. “(She) did make the comment that she was glad the vehicle was being towed due to her trying to get rid of it.”
Scam: A Richmond Hill woman reported Jan. 27 someone scammed her on Facebook Marketplace. The woman said she was looking to buy a house in Richmond Hill when she got an offer that didn’t make sense given the neighborhood. She gave police phone numbers of the would-be scammers.
Harassment: An officer was sent Jan. 26 to take a report of online harassment. The complainant said a former client made negative online posts regarding her business and character when another person recommended her services as a real estate agent to someone else. The complainant said the suspect, a woman, posted that she was “afraid for her life,” in a post. The complainant said the woman was a former client she “canceled business with due to possible fraud on her home application,” and noted none of the posts were sent to her directly and the woman hadn’t made any threats against her. She wanted it documented, however. It was.