Police Blotter

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

Dogs found dead in car

A Martinez man called police Sunday after he found his two dogs dead inside a locked car.

The man said he left for golfing at about 1:30 p.m. Sunday and returned at about 5:30 p.m., but could not find the dogs. The man said that when he went to look for the dogs, he noticed the closed windows of his Honda fogged up. He said he saw his dogs inside, and both were unresponsive.

The man's wife said that the dogs had gone outside with her but went back inside the house. She told police she has no idea how the dogs got into the car.

The pet owners called police from an emergency veterinarian clinic to report the incident. The vet told police it appeared the dogs had died from heat exhaustion.

Man reports damage to vacant house

A man living in Germany told police March 8 that someone broke into his vacant Martinez house and caused $6,000 in damage.

He said that sometime between Feb. 11 and March 7 someone damaged the entire inside of the house. Walls and window blinds were damaged and burned, and broken glass and mirrors littered the floor.

A sheriff's office investigator was called to the house.

Woman loses money in scam

A Martinez woman told police she owes $2,100 to her bank because someone sent her a false money order.

The woman said that between March 1 and 8, she received a $2,800 money order from a man she knew via e-mail because he agreed to buy a bichon fris dog from her. She said she took the money order to the Wachovia Bank at 489 Furys Ferry Road in Martinez, where she cashed it and deposited $700 into her bank account.

She said the man she knew only through e-mails as Borne asked her to send the remaining $2,100 via Western Union to pay a man in London, because he was the one who would be picking up the dog. She sent the money, but was later contacted by the London man, who stated he would not be picking up the dog.

A Wachovia Bank representative contacted the woman March 8 and told her there was a stop payment on the money order and she owed the $2,100 she received in cash.

Martinez business burglarized

The owner of a Martinez tobacco business told police someone broke into the store and stole nearly $1,600 worth of merchandise.

The owner of Tie Dye Rosie, at 111-A Old Evans Road in Martinez, told police she received a call just before 5:30 a.m. March 8 from an ADT security representative, who said a motion alarm had been activated. When the owner arrived, she told police, she discovered the front glass door shattered.

Police told the owner everything seemed to be in order except for tobacco pipes taken from a glass case. Several of the pipes, worth $1,579, were found scattered throughout the parking lot. A sheriff's office investigator was called to the store.

Martinez-Columbia Fire Rescue Activity Report for the week of March 5-11:

Structure fires, eight; woods fires, six; grass fires, four; vehicle fires, four; controlled burns, two; fire alarms, eight; medical calls, nine; rescue calls, 16; investigations, 12; public service, three; public safety assistance, one; and other, one.