Police blotter

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

Theft and vandalism in Appling

A 28-year-old Appling man told deputies early Wednesday that someone stole automotive equipment and tools from a shed and broke into and vandalized his home.

The man told deputies he discovered someone entered his house on the 6000 block of McZilkey Drive by prying open a rear door sometime Tuesday afternoon, according to a police incident report.

The man said nothing was missing inside the home, but he found feces on the floor of his office, the report said.

The man went outside to check his shed and found someone had stolen a 351-cubic inch engine block, a red 1987 Yamaha four-wheeler and a plasma cutter, the report said.

Armed robbery reported in Martinez

A 26-year-old Martinez man told police he was robbed at gunpoint Monday night.

The man told deputies he arrived at a house on the 4000 block of Fairfield Circle to visit friends at about 11:40 p.m. when a man got out of a sport utility vehicle and pointed a large silver semi-automatic handgun at him, demanding money, according to a Sheriff's Office incident report.

The Martinez man told deputies he surrendered his wallet containing $40, bank cards and his cell phone to the man, according to the incident report.

The victim told police the man with the gun then struck him, got into the SUV driven by a second man and fled the scene, the report said.

The man with the gun is described as being a thin, black male, wearing a camouflage jacket.

The driver of the SUV is described as a black male wearing a red hat, the report said.

Stolen truck found in Savannah River

Authorities in South Carolina found a 1998 Nissan Frontier pickup belonging to a Martinez man in the Savannah River on Monday morning at a boat ramp near the city of McCormick.

When informed that his vehicle was discovered in the river the man told Columbia County sheriff's deputies it had been stolen, according to an incident report.

The man told deputies the vehicle was stolen from the parking lot of Carter Landscaping while he was working out of town sometime between Feb. 17 and Monday, the report said.

Martinez man charged with damaging property

An 18-year-old Martinez man was arrested Wednesday morning and charged with second-degree criminal damage to property and driving under the influence of alcohol.

Jonah Robert Schafner, of the 400 block of Timberwolf Trail, who also was charged with reckless driving and criminal trespass, was released from the Columbia County Detention Center Wednesday afternoon on $8,600 bond.

Residents at two addresses in the 400 block of Hastings Place and two addresses in the 400 block of Cambridge Way told police someone drove a vehicle through their lawns early Wednesday, causing several thousand dollars in damage, according to several police incident reports.

One homeowner told deputies she and her husband put down boards riddled with nails in their yard in hopes of preventing such an incident from reoccurring.

Later, someone in a white Jeep Grand Cherokee drove into the yard, rolling over the boards, according to an incident report.

Deputiess later found Schafner in a vehicle with three flat tires matching the description of the suspect vehicle.

False reports to 911

A deputy who responded to a request for a welfare check at a home on Hickory Drive in Evans early Feb. 18 found a woman who they say was intoxicated and making false 911 calls, according to a police incident report.

When the deputy arrived, the woman, who police described in the report as "very intoxicated," said she could not make contact with a friend over the phone at about 5 a.m., according to the report.

The woman told police she needed to wake up the friend who needed to go to work and that she needed the deputy to retrieve her newspaper, according to the report.

The deputy told the woman to only call 911 when it is an emergency, the report said.

Later that night, dispatchers received another call from that number and Hickory Drive address from a woman who told police it was cold and raining.

Two days later, a third call was received informing police the caller was going to bed, the report said.

No charges had been filed against the woman as of Wednesday night.