Police Blotter
The following accounts were taken from reports filed with the Columbia County Sheriff's Office.
Bomb threat arrest
A Miami man was in jail Monday on charges that he left a false bomb threat in the Wachovia Financial Center in Martinez.
Alexis Nevarez-Diaz, 28, of the 8300 block of Northwest Seventh Street in Miami, was arrested Thursday and charged with false public alarm and is also absent without leave from Fort Gordon, sheriff's Capt. Steve Morris said.
A bank teller told police that after she finished assisting a customer, she found a note saying, "I have a bomb." She notified the bank manager, who called police.
Police cleared the bank and the teller's last customer before discovering Nevarez-Diaz, who had been a customer at the bank, had left the note.
Nevarez-Diaz was being held Monday without bond and on a hold by Fort Gordon authorities, according to jail records.
Money stolen, gambled away
A Martinez woman told police Friday that someone stole checks from her checking account to gamble at an casino.
The 77-year-old said she got a call from her bank advising that someone used two of her checks at the Silver Star Hotel and Casino for $1,000 and $1,500, according to an incident report. After checking her account online, the woman discovered two of her checks totaling $459.38 were used at Wal-Mart stores and that debits, for $1,500 and $2,000, were taken from her account from the same hotel.
The woman told police she ordered checks from a private company and received only one box in the mail.
She told police she is unsure of the exact numbers of the missing checks, but knows the ones used out of town were among the missing ones. The woman also said her Social Security number was used during the check transactions.
Women steal steaks
The manager of an Evans grocery store said a group of women left the store Oct. 5 without paying for the steaks in their purses.
The manager of Publix, 4274 Washington Road, told police that between 3:15 and 3:30 p.m. Oct. 5, an employee saw two women put two packs of T-bone steaks and three packs of ribeye steaks into their purses.
Someone got the tag number from the car the women left in, and police are seeking the owner.
Theft by deception
An Appling woman told police Oct. 5 that a company asked her to pay a fourth time to collect lottery winnings.
The 68-year-old said she received information in the mail stating that she had won a lottery. She told police she had already written three separate $18 checks to the company for the lottery.
She told police she received a phone call from the company Oct. 5 stating to collect her prize, she would have to pay $2,800. She then called the sheriff's office.
Martinez Fire Department activity report for the week of Oct. 2-8:
Structure fires, two; controlled burns, four; fire alarms, 15; natural gas leak, one; medical calls, 22; rescue calls, 16; investigation, one; and public service, one.