Police Blotter
Woman in cat case pleads not guilty
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An Appling woman cited with 81 counts of failure to care for and maintain animals pleaded not guilty to the charges at a Magistrate Court arraignment hearing Wednesday morning.
More than 80 cats were confiscated from Nan King's property in the 2300 block of County Camp Road after Columbia County Animal Care and Control employees found many of the cats and kittens to be in unsanitary and unhealthy conditions May 17. King was cited with the 81 counts of violating the county's animal cruelty ordinance May 24 for failing to care for and maintain animals.
King pleaded not guilty to the charges Wednesday morning and requested a Magistrate Court bench trial, which will begin held at 8:30 a.m. July 19.
One of the kittens was adopted, and the other 80 cats confiscated were euthanized because they were sick or too wild to be adoptable, said Linda Fulmer, the county's Animal Care and Control manager.
The following accounts were taken from reports filed with the Columbia County Sheriff's Office:
Hotel room robbed
An Augusta man told police Wednesday that someone lied to enter his Columbia County hotel room and stole his handgun.
The night clerk of the Super 8 Motel at 456 Park West Drive in Grovetown, said a man entered the lobby at about 2 a.m., presented himself by name as the renter of the room and claimed his magnetic card key did not work. The clerk said he scanned the key and confirmed for the man that it was still active for the room.
The clerk told police he watched from the front desk, on the video camera, which is not recorded, as the man went to the room, met a second man and used the key to enter the room.
The room renter, who reported a $475 Glock handgun and other items stolen from his room, told police he was staying in the room for a few days and had several keys made. He said he gave one key to a friend, to whom he'd sold a white Lincoln Town Car, but claimed the man never paid him for it.
The man renting the room looked at surveillance tape of the lobby and did not recognize the man with his room key.The clerk told police he saw a white Lincoln leave the parking lot shortly after the man with the key entered the room.
Theft by deception
A Martinez woman who purchased a motorcycle on eBay told police Tuesday that she paid $2,900 for the motorcycle via Western Union, but never received it.
The woman said she found the motorcycle for sale on the auction site and contacted the seller by e-mail. The seller told her to contact an eBay agent. The woman said the agent recommended that she not use PayPal, but to send him the $2,900 for the motorcycle by Western Union; the motorcycle would be delivered June 9. The woman sent the money.
After the motorcycle failed to arrive, the woman said, she contacted eBay, which informed her the seller is no longer an eBay seller. The woman gave police a New York address and fax number for the agent and a Las Vegas address for the seller.
Keys, car stolen
A Martinez woman told police Tuesday that someone stole her keys, then her car, while she shopped in the Martinez Wal-Mart.
She said she entered the store at 260 Bobby Jones Expressway at about 9 p.m. and was shopping when she noticed that her keys, which she clips to her purse, were missing. The shopper said she searched for the keys inside the store, then went looking in the parking lot at about 9:30 p.m., when she noticed her 2004 Mercedes-Benz was missing.
She was not sure whether she dropped the keys or whether they were taken while she shopped.
More than four hours later, Wal-Mart security personnel found the car in the lot, unlocked and running. Security called police, who called the woman and she picked up her car.