Police blotter
The following accounts were taken from reports filed with the Columbia County Sheriff's office.
Warmth of church
A Martinez woman almost walked in on an uninvited visitor at her church recently.
Shirley Height Jones, 46, arrived at Piney Grove Baptist Church, 4519 Jesse Road, Martinez, about 7:30 a.m. and went to the rear door to enter, according to a report filed with the Columbia County Sheriff's office. She said the door glass was broken and the door unlocked. As Jones entered, she told police she heard noises from someone moving around in the building, the report stated.
Jones immediately left to go get help, the reported stated.
When deputies arrived, they found dirt on the floor and on a seat in the main meeting room, the report stated. An outline of a human body was visible on the cushion.
Investigators said someone probably came into the church looking for a warm place to sleep. Nothing was missing or damaged except the door glass worth $65.
Purse snatcher
An Augusta woman told police that during a shopping trip someone took her purse when she wasn't looking.
Autumn Gayle Stanley, 31, of Woodcrest Circle, was shopping in Wal-Mart on Bobby Jones Expressway, when her purse containing $150 cash and her checkbook, was taken from her cart, a Columbia County Sheriff's office report stated.
Stanley said she did not notice anyone unusual or suspicious around her cart.
Stovall reports missing pipe
A local power tool and machine store recently reported suspicious tracks and missing pipe.
An employee of Stovall Outdoor Power, on Industrial Park Drive, Evans, noticed tire tracks in the grass beside the building and reported it to his supervisor, irrigation salesman Bobby Ray Hood. After an inventory of the yard, Hood, 32, of Evans, reported 100-feet of slotted pipe, often used for French drains, missing, a Columbia County Sheriff's office report stated.
Rock-throwing vandals
The number of rock-throwing incidents throughout the county are growing more frequent as two county residents recently reported two more incidents.
Paul Mark Kausak, 47, of Fairfield Circle, Evans, was driving through the parking lot of Food Lion, 4098 Old Peterburg Road, when an unknown person threw a rock that hit and cracked his vehicles windshield, a Columbia County Sheriff's office report stated.
In another incident,Raphael Damascus Marano, 40, discovered a window on county school bus number 9105, parked at Martinez Elementary School, broken while checking the grounds. According to the report, a thrown rock was the cause of the broken window.
Flood lights gone
A Martinez business owner was left in the dark recently after the security lights from his building were stolen.
As Joe Lamar Entrekin, the owner of Bavarian Mechanic Works on Commercial Boulevard, was closing his business for the day when he noticed the two security flood lights positioned on either side of the business entrance were not working, a Columbia County Sheriff's office report stated.
On further investigation, Entrekin found the $800 commercial weather-resistant flood lights had been unscrewed from the mounting base near the ground and the ground wires cut and stolen.