Police blotter

The following accounts were taken from reports filed with the Columbia County Sheriff's office.

Bad checks and a stolen trade-in

Fairway Ford of Evans incurred a double whammy last week when a man calling himself Curtis Wayne Wright purchased a 2000 Ford Expedition from the dealership using a stolen vehicle as a trade-in and writing a bad check for the balance, according to a report filed with the Columbia County Sheriff's office.

Wright purchased the vehicle Dec. 10 for $16,400 by trading in a 1996 Mazda 626 and writing a check for $15,628.23. Fairway's finance director, Sammie Lee Jones, discovered later that the trade-in was not owned by Wright, the report said.

Wright had purchased the Mazda 626 from Augusta Dodge with a bad check approximately 30 days earlier. Augusta Dodge still possesses the title to the Mazda. Jones also found out that the check written by Wright will not be honored by the bank because of lack of funds.

Elementary vandals

Westmont Elementary School in Martinez was recently vandalized.

Head custodian of the school, Tibias Anthony Rhodes reported to the Columbia County Sheriff's Office last Monday that someone wrote obscene words on the school's playground equipment. The vandals also used large rocks to break a wooden stepladder on one of the play castles, the report stated.

Fire Report

The Martinez Fire Department responded to the following calls during the week of Dec. 8-14: structure fires, two; grass fire, one; controlled burns, two; carbon monoxide, one; fire alarms, five; medical calls, 30; rescue calls, seven; investigations, four; public service, three; other, one.