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.