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Glennville fire ruled arson; reward offered
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Firefighters battle a blaze that destroyed four businesses in downtown Glennville on Sunday morning. - photo by Photo by Lewis Levine

A fire destroyed four businesses on Barnard Street in downtown Glennville early Sunday, and authorities said Tuesday that it has been ruled arson.

Multiple news outlets report that the Glennville police and fire departments are offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the suspect, whom authorities said can be seen in surveillance video.

Glennville Deputy Fire Chief Jim Anderson said his department was called to a structure fire about 3:30 a.m. Sunday, but it did not take long for flames to spread to nearby businesses and require assistance from several area fire departments.

About an hour after fire crews began battling the blaze, a backdraft blew out the front windows and knocked several firefighters down, but no serious injuries were reported, Anderson said.

He said there were firearms in Woods Auction and pharmaceuticals in Central Pharmacy, which required firefighters to exercise more caution as they entered these buildings.

The other two destroyed businesses were boutiques, one of which had not yet opened.

The effort to fight the fires was so large, Anderson said, the city’s water system was overwhelmed.

“These buildings are old buildings,” he said. “New facades have been put on them. They put in a new ceiling, so you had several areas of the ceiling and just old buildings hard to fight.”

It took until about 10 a.m. to contain the fire. The State Fire Marshal’s Office and federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and Drug Enforcement Agency were called to the scene.

Kerry Woods, the owner of Woods Auction, said looking at his burned-down business was “devastating.”

“We just lost everything that we just about owned other than our house, and I just couldn’t believe it this morning,” he said. “It was just a shock and now, knowing that I’ve lost all this.”

Woods expressed as much concern for his four employees as for himself.

“If I can find something, I will,” he said. “And I will get them back employed. That was one of my concerns, make sure they have employment. I just got to look at their welfare as much as mine.”

Woods Auction has operated on Barnard Street for 12 years. He said customers came from not only Glennville, but the surrounding area, around Georgia and even other states.

“We sold anything from furniture to glassware, lawnmowers — anything in a house, outside the house, just any general merchandise,” Woods said.

Glennville Mayor Chris Roessler said the fire caused “a tremendous loss.”

“It hurts because people do business down here in our town, and they employ people. It has a huge impact on our city,” he said. “We’ve just recently revitalized downtown and (are) trying to bring businesses back to the downtown area, and then you get something like this thrown at you. But the good thing is, nobody was hurt, everybody was fine.”

Roessler and Anderson were thankful for the agencies that assisted in fighting the fire. Responding fire departments included Glennville, Tattnall County, Evans County, Fort Stewart, Hinesville and Long County.

“When you get a phone call at 3:30 or 4 o’clock in the morning, it’s one of those phone calls you don’t want to get,” Roessler said. “And it’s unfortunate that four businesses were devastated.”

Anderson recalled two other large-scale fires in Glennville during his 29 years with the department. One was a number of years ago, also on Barnard Street, which destroyed several businesses.

The other was last August, which destroyed part of Armstrong’s Cricket Farm.

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HPD Reports
crime scene

From Hinesville Police Department reports. Editor’s note: Due to computer issues at the city, reports have been unavailable in recent weeks. They are back. Our thanks to the HPD clerks who provide them. We’re catching up as quickly as possible.

Burglary, etc: A man called 911 on Feb. 27 because he was watching his White Circle home getting burglarized. The man said his alarm system had an app that showed live video on his phone, and he was “viewing three males inside his residence,” as he talked to 911.
Police responded, caught two of them inside the house and found the third guy “hiding behind a tree,” the report said.
Detectives are investigating.

Public indecency: An officer was sent to Lowes around 4:30 p.m. March 12 in reference to a disturbance involving a man and a woman.
The woman, a Lowe’s employee, said she had just got back from her lunch break when she saw the man “looking around at items on a shelf.”
The woman said she asked him if he needed help finding anything and he held up something, then said “I have found everything I need,” the report said. “(he) then placed his arms around (the employee) to hug her and then kissed (her) neck. (She) then moved away from (him) and told him to have a nice day and attempted to walk away from (the man). (He) then began to follow (her), stating ‘I would lick you up and down’ and ‘you better hide in an office.’ (She) then spoke with manager and called 911.’”
The man told police he thought he recognized the woman “and stated to me that he had previously had a relationship with her approximately two years ago. (He) was unable to recall (her) name while on scene.”
The woman told police “she has never seen, nor spoken to (the man) before today.”
The woman was given a case number and told what to do. The man was allowed to leave.

Indecent exposure: A Berkshire Terrace man reported he went outside his house around 6:40 a.m. and “observed a man who appeared to be intoxicated, peeing on his truck and trailer.”
The complainant said the man “fully exposed his penis while he was peeing. When (complainant) asked him to stop the man told him to ‘shut the (bleep) up.’ (Complainant) advised the man he would call police. (Complainant) advised his young son was standing outside during the incident. He said the man got into a 1996 black Buick and drove away, almost hitting cars that were parked in the driveway.”
The complainant said he did not want to press charges, “he said he wanted to report the incident because the man did not stop peeing when he asked him too.”
The complainant said he’d seen the man before “come and go” from a nearby apartment. The officer met with the resident of that apartment, who said the man was a cousin and did not pee on the complainant’s trailer.

Identity theft: A man went to HPD on March 21 to report that when he went to get a driver’s history for a commercial driver’s license, he found several citations on the history that weren’t his. “(He) stated he noticed someone was issued four citations in Arkansas and one citation in Jacksonville, Florida,” and during the time the Arkansas tickets were written he was in locked up in Georgia.
“(He) advised that he was not incarcerated when the citation in Jacksonville, Florida was issued but he was not in Florida at the time. (He) was unable to leave the state of Georgia due to being on felony probation.”
It gets worse.
“(He) told me that he attempted to file his income taxes for the first time ever and he was rejected due to owing the IRS money, $20,000. (He) stated he spoke to a representative for the IRS and he was informed that taxes were filed in his name in 2014 and the return was $1,3000. (He) advised he did not file taxes in 2013 and he was still incarcerated at the time.”
The man then told the officer he thinks his brother “got the citations and filed income taxes using his information. (He) believed his brother obtained his Social Security number and other demographics when he was incarcerated.”
The man said he talked to his brother, who said he paid all the tickets. “(His) brother also told him on a different occasion that he knew his date of birth and (SSN). (He) advised he told his brother that it was not OK to use his name due to him getting his life together and attempting to drive commercial vehicles.”
The guy said he didn’t have his brother’s address. He chose to fill out an identity theft packet.

Simple battery, theft by taking: An officer was sent around 2 a.m. March 20 to the Baymont Inn regarding a disturbance. There, a woman said she was being “grabbed and pulled” by a man when she told him to leave her motel room. She said they began arguing when he accused her of stealing $100.
The man claimed he met the woman on a dating website and when they “started having sex she informed him that it would cost $100.” He told her he wasn’t going to pay her, “got dressed and realized the five $20s in his pants pocket were missing. He accused (her) of stealing his money.”
The officer asked the woman if she stole the man’s money and she replied, “No, I work hard for my money.”
Both were given a case number and told how to get a warrant.

Robbery: A woman called HPD March 15 to report she was home when her estranged husband came to her apartment “and asked her to come outside to talk to him,” a report said.
“She stated that she stepped outside thinking that he was going to be civil, though she recently filed for divorce from him. As she stepped outside, he grabbed her necklace off her neck and then ran down the stairwell and out to the parking lot.”
The woman said he stood by his vehicle a minute, then drove off as police arrived. Officers checked the area but had no luck finding the man.

Burglary: Police were sent to a Malibu Drive address on March 13 regarding missing firearms and ransacked rooms. The homeowners were at work and got home to find handguns and rifles missing, as well as video games.
It appeared the home may have been broken into through the attic. Police found footprints and other evidence, and the case is under investigation.

Recovered stolen trailer: A U-Haul employee was inventorying equipment on March 14 when she discovered a trailer that had been reported stolen in Florida on Dec. 26. “She stated someone had backed the trailer into a parking stall along with the other trailers sometime during the night.”

Theft: In February, the maintenance man at Cypress Bend Mobile Home Park reported that “22 air conditioning unit disconnect boxes were stolen from various lots… He stated he began receiving calls from people that their air conditioning units were not working.”
The boxes contain small pieces of copper. He didn’t know who swiped them, but valued the total at about $341.

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