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RHPD reports: International encounters
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From Richmond Hill Police Department reports:

 Traffic violations: An RHPD officer headed up Highway 144 around 2 a.m. July 15 reported he was “blinded by a vehicle that was traveling east with its high beam headlights activated,” so he conducted a traffic stop.

The driver gave him a license from Chile and a U.S. passport and told the officer he’d never gotten a local license. The officer checked out the documents and found “the Chile license was not an international driver’s license as well as the U.S. passport had not been stamped since 2014 despite (the driver) advising he had just entered the U.S. a few months prior.”

The officer asked the driver to step out, and after some discussion refused the officer’s request and was removed from the car and arrested. He was cited with obstruction, driving without a license and traffic violations, given a court date and released. His car was towed.

Traffic violations, driving without license: An officer spotted a van run a red light at the Highway 17 and Highway 144 intersection around 8:a.m. July 13, causing a vehicle with the green light to have to slam on brakes. A traffic stop ensued, and the driver got out, said he didn’t speak English and provided the officer with a driver’s license for Panama. His passport, he told officers, was at home.

He was arrested. During the inventory of his van some $2,000 in cash was found in a bag and turned over to a friend of the driver who happened to pass by the traffic stop. The driver was cited for driving without a license and failure to obey a traffic control device.

Matter of record: An officer was sent to the I-95 exit 87 southbound off ramp around 1:30 p.m. July 16 regarding a hammer, or “similar object in size and appearance, that had “came from the truck bed of (a man’s) pickup truck and struck the passenger side windshield of (the complainant’s vehicle).”

Whatever it was, it made “a large impact area on the passenger side of the windshield.”

Both driver’s wanted a report for insurance. The object was never found, the report said.

Disorderly conduct: Police and fire and Bryan County EMS were sent to Ashton Apartments around 12:34 pm. July 16 regarding a fire in an apartment. “Upon arrival it was found there was no fire,” and “shortly after it was found that the call was a prank.”

The women behind it apologized, but the officer noted “the prank wasted valuable resources that could have been resulted in injury to persons and equipment with multiple emergency vehicles running code to the false code,” according to the report, so charges were pending.

Speeding, suspended license: An officer monitoring traffic on I-95 around 12:45 a.m. July 15 clocked a car going 93 mph, and conducted a traffic stop near mile marker 88.

It turned out the driver’s Alabama license had been suspended for DUI and there was an open beer in the driver’s door, and the man was “found to be under the lnfluence of alcohol but not to a less safe extent.” He was taken to RHPD, charged and then released to appear in court. His vehicle was turned over to a licensed driver.

Matter of record: An employee at the AI Food Shop on 144 reported “a customer drove away from gas pump No. 5 with the nozzle still in the vehicle, pulling the hose out of the pump.” She said the driver cooperated and provided his driver’s license and insurance, but “refused to give his contact information.” The VIN on the insurance card came back to a car registered in Maryland. The employee wanted a copy of the report for insurance purposes.

Suspended license, traffic violations: An officer was patrolling near Lynwood Avenue around 1:50 p.m. July 14 when he saw a pickup coming at him on the wrong side of the street.

After a traffic stop, the driver said he’d been distracted for a moment, and told the officer he didn’t have a license but gave him a Georgia ID. A check showed the man’s license had been suspended since 2016. He was charged, etc.

Criminal trespass; A homeless man was caught sleeping in the old Upper Crust restaurant around 8:22 a.m. July 13 and is being charged with criminal trespass due to damage to a window and door.

Matter of record: An officer was sent to a Highway 144 fast food restaurant around 7:47 a.m. July 9 regarding “a customer making threatening comments to a clerk.” The complainant said she wanted the man “to leave and not return.”

The officer met with the man, who “denied using any threats toward the staff but felt as if he was being treated different because he was not from around here.” The man was told management didn’t want him to come back, etc.

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