Police blotter

The following accounts were taken from reports from the Columbia County Sheriff's Office. Additional reports are available at www.columbiacountyso.org:

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Tag stolen from lot of Evans tag office

An Evans man told police Wednesday that someone stole the tag from his trailer while it was parked in a lot in front of the Columbia County tag office.

The owner said that about 4 p.m. Tuesday he noticed the license plate missing.

Woman is arrested in shoplifting case

A Martinez woman was arrested Monday and charged with shoplifting from an Evans grocery store.

Candace Hope Herskowitz, 43, of the 300 block of Marshall Street, was charged with theft by shoplifting and was released from the Columbia County Detention Center on Monday after posting a $1,100 bond, according to jail records.

An associate at Kroger, 4355 Washington Road, told police that she saw Herskowitz come into the store about 1 p.m. carrying several empty shopping bags. The employee said she had seen Herskowitz before in the store carrying empty bags and leaving with full bags without going through a checkout lane.

While following Herskowitz in the store, the associate saw Herskowitz fill the bags with nearly $70 worth of merchandise, including gum, candy, crackers, cookies, shampoo, conditioner, body wash, yogurt and grapes.

Store management detained Herskowitz and called police after she tried to leave the store without paying for the merchandise.

Fake money used at Driver Services

An employee of the Department of Driver Services called police Tuesday after a woman tried to use a counterfeit $20 bill to pay for services.

The worker said that just after 10 a.m., the woman presented a photocopied $20 bill at the office at 4408 Evans to Locks Road in Evans. The ink on the bill had what appeared to be a liquid stain on it. When the employee told the woman the bill was fake, she pulled another photocopied $20 bill from her pants pocket and asked whether it also was photocopied. That bill also had a stain on it.

The woman then paid with a legitimate $20 bill, and the employee called police. The woman told police she didn't know how she came into possession of the phony money.

Safe, cash are stolen from Family Dollar

Someone stole a safe containing cash early Tuesday morning during a break-in at a Family Dollar near Grovetown.

A sheriff's deputy called the manager of the store at 357 N. Belair Road after discovering the front door shattered about 12:30 a.m. The deputy found a large rock just inside the front door.

The manager told police that a safe, covered in false wood paper to disguise it, had been stolen from under a register.

Someone opened drawers of a file cabinet in an office at the back of the store, but nothing was taken except a stapler and a clipboard holding paperwork. The manager said it did not appear any store merchandise was taken.

Man suspects wife damaged his truck

A Hephzibah man told police Monday that his wife had scratched the side of his truck in the Wal-Mart parking lot.

The 45-year-old said he was in the Evans store when he saw his wife, from whom he is separated. Because there is a court order stating the two have no contact with each other, he went to the lot until his wife left.

After doing his shopping, the man went back into the lot and saw his wife walking next to his truck as if she were dragging something down the side of it. He found a light scratch on the left front fender and door, which is the area he saw her touching.