A Jesup woman apparently dreaming of a large payday reportedly filed a police report claiming she had been struck by a vehicle in Hinesville. However, she soon found herself under investigation and later was arrested for filing a false report.
According to Hinesville Police Department Traffic Accident Investigator Jeremy Craig, the 60-year-old woman told Craig that she had been standing in Walmart’s parking lot, providing verbal directions to her mother, who was trying to back out of a parking space. Suddenly, the woman said, she was struck by a white Lincoln Town Car driven by an elderly woman. The woman said that she fell to the ground and yelled at the driver, who never stopped. According to Craig, the woman was transported to Liberty Regional Medical Center in Hinesville, where she was treated for scrapes to her knees.
Questioning the woman’s story, Craig and Traffic Accident Investigator Cpl. Les Patton asked to review Walmart’s parking lot security footage, which provided a clear view of the allged accident site. In the footage, the officers saw a vehicle pass within a few feet of the woman, but it never struck her.
On the film, the woman could be seen walking around her mother’s SUV before repeatedly falling to her knees in front of the vehicle and tearing her slacks. The woman later was seen entering Walmart with friends and family members, who collaborated her story and reported the accident.
A Walmart employee told Craig he was in the parking lot collecting shopping carts a few feet away from the accident scene. The employee did not see what occurred, but said he heard the woman screaming, “You hit me! You hit me!”
Craig said that when he interviewed the woman again days later and explained what the security footage revealed, she dropped the charges against the Lincoln driver, who was unaware of the incident when she later was interviewed.
The reportedly woman told Craig her pastor made her fabricate the story. When Craig interviewed the pastor, she said that she would represent the woman in a civil case against the driver.
The woman was arrested, charged with obstruction of justice and paid a $562 fine.