Editor’s note: These are the first reports we’ve received from HPD in 2020. We’ll catch up as best we can. 

From Hinesville Police Department reports:

Stolen debit card: A South Pointe Drive woman reported Jan. 9 that her debit card was missing and had been used “throughout the morning.”

The woman said she’d had an incident with her daughter the previous night and “believes that she stole the card because she’s the only one that knows her PIN number,” the report continued. 

While a bank representative couldn’t tell the woman when the card was used that morning, it was used frequently. There were debits of $13.49, $3.51, $7.47 and $16.41 at an Enmarket; $18  at a Chevron; cash withdrawals of $102.95 and $202.95 at an ATM on Highway 84; and $10.89 at a car wash. 

The woman got a case number, a victims right pamphlet and was told how to take out a warrant and “eviction procedures,” the report said. 

Criminal trespass: A Highway 84 car wash employee reported Jan. 9 that “he noticed some of the door latches with padlocks attached were broken on the vacuum cleaners and the insides (trash) of the vacuum cleaners were on the ground nearby. He showed me the latches on three of the vacuum cleaners that were bent and could not be resecured.”

He also showed the officer video of a man “appearing to use a screwdriver to the latches on the vacuum cleaners. (He) was unsure if the male took anything.”

Mental subject: Police were sent Dec. 9 to Walmart regarding a man who was trying to get to Wayne County, but didn’t have a ride. 

Officers tried to call his sister, but no one answered. They then took him to the bus stop, “where he was advised to wait on the next bus to get him closer to home.”

About an hour later, officers were sent “in reference to a suspicious person making threats in front of Walmart Supercenter.”

It was the man waiting on a lift to Wayne County. He was “standing by the bus stop yelling and cursing.”

An officer calmed him down, then talked to a Walmart manager who said he’d gotten a complaint the man had threatened to “shoot up Walmart,” and so he came outside to talk to the man “but (the man) became disorderly by yelling and cursing at him,” the report said. 

That continued while the officer was talking the manager, so he asked for backup. The man then told the Walmart manager “he was going to bust (the manager) on the head with the cell phone.”

The officer told the man he was under arrest, and got him handcuffed and put into a car and taken to jail. 

There, the man “became disorderly by beating his head on the cell door.” 

A nurse was called and she said the man “appeared to be intoxicated,” and so needed to be taken to Liberty Regional Medical Center  for “further evaluations.”

The man was taken to LRMC, where he “became combative with staff as they tried to retrieve urine and blood sampling,” and, when a woman tried to take his blood, the man “became combative again demanding he wanted (her) out of his room. As she was existing, (the man) threatened to kill her dead.”

An officer told the man he couldn’t make threats like that and he was handcuffed again. The handcuffs were taken off “as staff attempted to sedate (the man) and tie him to the bed.”

The man was ultimately admitted to the hospital as a mental case and wasn’t charged. 

Disturbance: An officer sent around 10:30 a.m. Dec. 9 to a Gen. Screven Way beauty salon regarding a disturbance first talked to a man police already had detained and put in a patrol car.

He told the officer he, his sister and a family friend went into the “store to buy some hair for (his sister).”

There, they ran into a cashier “who (his sister) has had previous issues with,” and “the two exchanged words,” but the fight started when his sister was hit by the cashier’s boyfriend, “who is also (the sister’s) ex-boyfriend.”

Her brother said she only fought because the cashier tried to join the fight. 

The friend who’d accompanied them to the salon was also in a patrol car, and he told police he was there to help her buy hair because he was going to do it for her, and “he stated he had no involvement in the physical altercation but was instead locked out of the business by the manager when the fight began,” the report said. 

That man said the fight started when the cashier’s boyfriend threw a chair at the brother and sister. 

The manager, said five people came into the store when it opened. He said the woman who wanted to buy the hair came in, made a transaction, then came back to start the fight with his employee. 

The manager said he tried to get them to leave, but they refused, and the fight started when they threw the chair. 

The cashier said she and the woman there to buy hair “have been going back and forth on social media prior to today’s incident due to (the cashier’s) dating (the woman’s) ex boyfriend. 

After officers finished their investigation they aarrested four people – the woman who went to buy hair, her brother, the friend who was going to do her hair and the cashier’s boyfriend. They were taken to Liberty County Jail.

Disorderly conduct: An officer was sent to a Kelly Drive address around 5:30 p.m. Nov. 30, where a woman said the resident “pulled a gun on her,” a report said. 

The woman said she was at the Glenn Bryant and Pineland Avenue intersection when the man “’shot her the bird’ (extended middle finger with the rest of the fingers bent towards the palm) and drove off.”

The woman said she kept on driving ahead of the man, but when she saw him get out of his vehicle, “she backed up and attempted to approach him to ask why did he shoot her the board. (She ) said (he) had a gun in his right and pointed it at her.”

The officer then talked to the man, who said he’d shot the bird at the woman because she was driving all over the place. He said he asked her why and she yelled that she’d dropped something. 

The man said when he got home “she got out of her vehicle and started cursing at him,” while also acknowledging he’d pulled his gun from his vehicle, “but was removing it from the vehicle,” and “never pointed the weapon at her.”

A witness backed up the man’s story. The woman said she had video on her cell phone, but the officer said she “only took a  picture of (the man) pointing his weapon towards the ground. There was no video f him pointing his weapon at her.” 

The officer told the woman “it was not a safe practice to follow someone to their residence and get out of their video yelling and cursing.”

Both the man and the woman were given case numbers and told how to get a copy of the report, and how to take out a warrant if they wanted to. 

Harrassing communications: A man reported Nov. 30 his ex-girlfriend’s father had threatened to “bash his skull in” over the phone.

The complainant said he wasn’t worried about that, because “he was an MMA fighter that was 7-0,” and instead wanted to know what he could do to his ex girlfriend’s father if he showed up. 

He was told to call for police instead.