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Liberty County Sheriffs Office blotter
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Sept. 15: Cruelty to animals — A 57-year-old Hinesville woman was charged with cruelty to animals after leaving her black pug locked in her car for 1 hour and 25 minutes with all the windows rolled up. The woman had come to the Liberty County Animal Shelter to adopt a chocolate lab, leaving the pug inside her car while she completed the adoption papers. She had to have assistance in getting her car unlocked. By that time, the pug was unconscious and had to be taken inside the shelter to be resuscitated.

Sept. 17

Simple assault — A Barrington Ferry Road man complained that his neighbor was building a fence on his property. The man said he approached his neighbor and asked what he was doing. When the neighbor answered, “Nobody can tell me what to do on my property,” the man told his neighbor he’d have to pay because the neighbor didn’t have the right to deny the man access to his property. The neighbor reportedly pushed the man’s chin with a closed fist. Two witnesses said they did not see the neighbor strike the man. The man maintained his accusation that his neighbor was trespassing.

Criminal trespass — A deputy was called to a residence on Briar Bay Road, where a man said he returned home from the grocery store and was told by his wife that she was leaving him and taking their children. The man reportedly told his wife that she wouldn’t need any of the food he had just bought at the store if she was leaving, so he took the groceries and put them back in his truck. The man said his wife then broke two windows in the front of the house, so he went down the street to call 911. The woman said she doesn’t have a job and is completely dependent on her husband. She said he is controlling and often leaves the house for days, leaving her and their children with no food or money. She admitted to breaking the windows in an attempt to get the groceries back from her husband because she was worried he’d leave again for several days. Once her husband went to inspect the broken windows, she grabbed all the food out of his truck and put it in her vehicle. She said her husband then busted through the door, damaging it, and became verbally abusive to their 13-year-old daughter before he ripped the phone out of the wall so she couldn’t call 911. The husband denied his wife’s accusations. Due to conflicting stories and a lack of credible witnesses at the scene, no arrests were made.

Sept. 19

Matter of record — A Butter Blounts Road complainant said two people on four-wheelers had been agitating him by driving behind his property on a fire break and on the road in front of his house. The man said the four-wheeler drivers yell things and harass him as they pass. The man said he had a Sept. 20 court date and needed something to show the magistrate so he can get a temporary protection order.

Theft by taking — A Limerick Road woman called 911 when she noticed her son’s truck had been taken from their yard. She said her son called and asked whether his truck was still in the yard because a friend told him the truck was on a flat-bed trailer on Highway 17 in Midway. When the woman checked, the truck was missing. A neighbor reportedly saw a tan SUV hook up the truck and drive off with it about 20 minutes before the deputy arrived. A diamond-plated toolbox, approximately $2,500 worth of stereo equipment and a push mower were stolen along with the truck. Later, Coastal Recycling Center reported that a vehicle matching the truck’s description was being turned in as scrap metal. Authorities were dispatched to the location, where they found two suspects and transported them to the Liberty County Jail. The truck was taken to a storage yard.

Sept. 21-22

Burglary — A Liberty County sheriff’s deputy responded to a burglary on Lake Drive in Midway. A woman said she and her roommate had left the residence around 1 p.m. and returned around 5 p.m. They said the doors and windows were locked when they left, and no one else had a key to the residence. When they returned, they found clothes thrown all over the floor and a flat-screen TV thrown on the floor. Some children’s jewelry valued at $250 and $300 cash were missing. The deputy found no sign of forced entry.

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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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