From Richmond Hill Police Department incident reports: 

Matter of record: A Richmond Hill man reported March 15 someone texted him to tell him to pay $2,000 or else, and included in the text photos of someone whose head had been cut off.

The man showed police the text from a phone with a California area code. It told the man to pay the money “for wasting the time of one of their escorts. The subject advised they were part of a cartel as well. This subject asked (the complainant) if he would like to handle the ordeal the easy way or the hard way. The subject also attached pictures of a subject beheaded, advising the pictures were subjects who decided to handle the issue the hard way.”

The text also included names of people who were members of the complainant’s family, the report said. The complainant told deputies he’s never solicited a prostitute. He was told not to respond to the texts, which “appeared to be a deceitful attempt to defraud (the man) for financial gain,” and the threats didn’t appear to be valid. The complainant said he was going to change his phone number.

Obstruction, traffic  violations: An officer running radar on Highway 17 around 11:30 p.m. March 19 spotted a northbound car headed north with its  high beams on despite oncoming traffic. 

“The vehicle in question was also traveling at an extremely slow speed (27 mph in a 55 mph zone),” the officer reported, and he tried to conduct a traffic stop near a local motel. The car kept going, and pulled directly in front of a motel, which led the officer to think the driver might try to run inside.

Instead, the driver stayed put, and said she couldn’t roll down her window because it was broke. She did roll down the back window a bit.

The officer asked her to open the door and she said she didn’t want to and that she “had a lawsuit against law enforcement,” and after the officer said that had nothing to do with him and he needed to see her license.

She then rolled her window up, then rolled it back down and “provided an insurance document but no license,” which led the officer to ask her to step out of the vehicle, “to which she continued to refuse.”

After some back and forth, the officer called for backup and told the woman she was required to get out of the car “to which she continued to refuse and state that she was not going to come out of the vehicle,” and the woman even called 911.

“After a total of 18 times of asking (the woman) to step out of the vehicle,” the officer broke the glass and told the woman she was under arrest. “Once (the woman) stepped out, she continued to try and record our interaction, tensing her arms as she did so.” 

Police cleaned up the glass and had the woman’s car towed. She showed the officer a photo of her license and “during the course of this incident an unrelated incident was reported to officers on scene which caused a delay of (the woman) being transported to Bryan County Jail.”

She was eventually taken to jail, as well as being cited and given a court date.

Matter of record: Police were called to a subdivision on March 14 where a man reported a car parked in front of his house for an hour, and he “was concerned the HOA would attempt to fine him for having a vehicle parked on the road.”

The man told police he was also worried because the car didn’t have a tag. Police checked it out and though it didn’t have a tag the VIN showed it was registered in Alabama and had not been reported stolen. Inside was a driver’s license for a woman, along with diapers, a stroller and other items.

At the time of the report, police had been unable to locate the listed owner or the woman whose license was in the car.

 Damage to property: A Jacksonville, Fla., man reported March 14 he was driving south on I-95 when a vehicle in front of him ran over a tire and it flew up and hit his windshield.

The man pulled over and called for help. The officer saw “a large shattered area of the windshield, the point of impact appearing to be the driver’s side, as well as a black circular mark left by the tire. The windshield was caved in where the tire struck.”

The officer called for a tow truck, etc.

 Damage to property: Police were sent to a local motel March 15 regarding damage to the windshield of a pickup belonging to one of the guests. The officer was shown security camera footage, which showed two people sitting in the bed around 11 p.m. March 14. “A male subject climbed out of the bed onto the roof of the cab, and attempted to walk down the windshield to the hood of the vehicle,” the report said, noting “During this maneuver, the subject slipped and fell onto the windshield.”

The complainant identified the person as her son, and said he ‘was on probation through Chatham County, and had active cases in the juvenile court.”
Police contacted his probation officer, etc. His mother got a case number.

 Matter of record: An officer was sent to a local address March 19 “in reference to the caller stating that his wife was being followed in her vehicle from Savannah and she was scared.”

The man told an officer his wife was at a “tattoo parlor in Savannah and that she sent him some texts stating to call 911 and have them at the house,” but when the man got his wife on the phone for the officer, the woman “sounded under the influence of some narcotic or alcohol due to her speech being very slurred.”

The officer asked the woman “what was going on and she stated that her husband was going to have her killed due to her wanting a divorce.”
Ultimately, police tracked her down and had Savannah police “make contact with her.” She “willingly went with Chatham EMS to Candler Hospital for evaluation.”
The husband got a case number.

 Matter of record: Police were called to the Food Lion around 10:51 a.m. March 18 “in reference to a suspicious person walking around acting strangely,” a report said. But when an officer arrived and talked to Food Lion employees they said they didn’t call and didn’t notice anyone acting strangely.

However, while in the store an officer spotted a man getting in a car who matched the description and stopped that car in a nearby parking lot. There, police spoke with a man who “stated that he felt like his face was swelling and requested EMS.”

EMS was called and check the man out, and while paramedics were handling that an officer asked the passenger in the car for his name and date of birth and it turned out he was wanted for a parole violation. He was arrested and taken to jail. The man who wanted to be seen by EMS declined a ride to the hospital.

Speeding, no license: A car was clocked doing 60 mph on Highway 17 near the viaduct around 10:15 a.m. March 17, and an officer pulled it over. There, the driver, an 18-year-old, was asked for her license.

“(She) stated, ‘that she did not have a drivers license,’” and had never had one one. The teen also told the officer she’d just moved her from California and “that she ahs never had a state ID issued to her from any state.’”

She was arrested for driving without a license, etc. A passenger was able to drive the car away.

 Gas drive off: A Highway 17 gas station employee reported March 16 someone in a white pickup “pumped 125.944 gallons of diesel fuel costing $365.11 and then drove off,” a report said. The woman was unable to give a better description to the store being busy, the report said.

 Matter of record: Police were sent to Highway 17 at the I-95 intersection shortly before 1 a.m. March 15 after a truck driver saw a car stop and a man get out, stumble, nearly get hit by other vehicles and then fall onto a grassy area.

The truck driver couldn’t tell if the man was pushed out of the car or got out of his own, but the car he was in left. Authorities tried to talk to the man, who “was either very intoxicated or under the influence of an unknown substance and was not making any sense when he spoke,” though police could make out the word “Savannah.”

Bryan County EMS and Richmond Hill Fire Department first responders were called, and while police were talking to him “he fell face first into the ditch into about two feet of standing water.” An officer got him out, EMS showed up and police figured out who he was. He was loaded onto an ambulance and taken to St. Joseph’s, where he “started to come around,” but “was still not coherent enough to say what happened and no signs of any physical trauma were observed on him.”