Police blotter

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

Continuing altercation

After an argument, a man said someone banged up someone else's door with a 2-by-4 board.

Brian Daniel Etter of Grovetown told police that a man came to his home on the 1200 block of Reynolds Farm Road and began beating on the front door with the piece of lumber wanting him and Jason Michael Covington of Hephzibah to come outside.

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Etter said that the board-wielding man was upset because of a dispute with Etter, Covington and the man's nephew, according to an incident report.

A deputy noted several dents in the front door.

Shoplifting charge

A Wal-Mart loss-prevention officer charged a woman with trying to shoplift a home pregnancy test.

Frank James of the Bobby Jones Expressway Wal-Mart told authorities that he saw a woman, identified in a police report as Monica Jackson, place the pregnancy test in her shopping cart. He said that Jackson, 17, of 3100 block of Skinner Mill Road, Augusta, then moved to another part of the store where she took the test out of the package and placed it down her pants. She then went through the checkout line without paying for the test.

A warrant was obtained for shoplifting and Jackson was taken to the Columbia County Detention Center.

Keep the change

A cashier at the Martinez Kmart was recently scammed out of $55.

K-Mart loss-prevention officer Anthony Jerome Moss told police that someone purchased an item with a $100 bill. After receiving the correct change, the person claimed it was incorrect and was given an additional $55.

A video of the exchange was turned over the Columbia County Sheriff's Office.

Several other such incorrect-change swindles have been reported to police recently.

Indecency sentence

A man arrested on a public-indecency charge in a local Wal-Mart in February was sentenced in Columbia County Superior Court Tuesday.

Ronald Levin Fountain, 44, of Hephzibah, was sentenced by Superior Court Judge Bernard Mulherin Sr. to a year in jail to be probated pending the payment of a $1,000 fine.

Fountain was arrested Feb. 21 and charged with public indecency after he exposed himself in a lewd manner in the Martinez Wal-Mart, according to the indictment. Willie Frank James Jr., a loss-prevention officer for the store, watched Fountain follow female shoppers with a mirror and kneel down and reach through a hole in his left pants leg, a Columbia County Sheriff's Office incident report stated.

Fountain, who has a history of charges including burglary and theft, arrived in court with his fiancee. His attorney, Brendan Fleming, suggested probation since Fountain has lost his construction job because of the arrest.