Police blotter
The following accounts were taken from reports from the Columbia County Sheriff's Office. Additional reports are available at www.columbiacountyso.org:
//
Christmas displays at 2 residences damaged
Someone damaged outdoor Christmas decorations at two Columbia County homes.
A Grovetown man said that just before 10 p.m. Dec. 23, he saw two people come onto his property and break or knock over several of his holiday decorations. When he tried to confront the vandals, they ran away.
An Evans man said that between 6 p.m. Dec. 22 and 2 p.m. Dec. 23 someone stole four lighted deer from his side yard. He found four deer missing and another broken.
He told police the incident was the second within a week and that he has had similar problems in recent years.
Money box stolen from Sonic during Christmas
An assistant manager at the Evans Sonic said someone broke into the business while it was closed for Christmas.
She arrived at the fast-food restaurant at 4436 Washington Road at 6:20 a.m. Saturday and waited outside for the cook, who did not show up for work. She went inside at 6:30 a.m. and found the window of the back door broken and the money box empty.
She called her husband, also a supervisor at Sonic, and went outside until he arrived. Her husband called police, then the general manager. He said he had checked on the business at 8 p.m. Christmas Day, when it was closed, and the money drawer was fine.
The general manager said that $300 was taken from the money box, which had been left unlocked in an unlocked file cabinet drawer, and that another $300 had been stolen from a safe. The safe required a pass code, which only employees have.
A video surveillance system recorded the inside of the restaurant during the incident.
Evans man arrested after wife tells police he's home
An Evans man was arrested early Sunday after his wife told police he had arrived home while being wanted in connection to a car break-in.
Joseph Daniel Krecskay, 31, of McGahee Road, was charged with larceny and was held in the Columbia County Detention Center on a $7,600 bond, according to jail records.
A North Augusta man told police just before 1 a.m. Sunday that he had left the Evans Walmart and found a man inside his van. He confronted the man, later identified as Krecskay, who fled, dropping his cell phone.
Police looked through the phone and called Krecskay's home. His wife told police he drove a white Pontiac, which was found in the Walmart lot and towed.
After Krecskay returned home, his wife called the police, and he was arrested.
Man said his boss fired handgun during threat
An Evans man told police Christmas Eve that his boss had threatened him with a gun.
About 11 a.m., his boss accused him of stealing tires from his business. When he replied that he didn't steal tires, his boss became angry, and shot the ground three times with a handgun and said he would kill the employee.
The boss told him, though, that he wouldn't shoot the man because the boss had his son with him.
Augusta Christian gym, vending machines entered
Someone broke into Augusta Christian Schools on Sunday and stole from two vending machines in the gym.
A maintenance employee at the school at 313 Baston Road, Martinez, said that about 3:45 p.m. he discovered that someone entered the locked gymnasium and broken into a snack machine and a Gatorade machine outside.
Cash was stolen from the machines.
Martinez Columbia Fire Rescue report for Dec. 20-26:
Structure fires, four; wood/brush/grass fires, two; controlled/unauthorized burns, three; dumpster fire, one; activated fire alarms, 11; activated carbon monoxide detector, one; gas line rupture, one; medical incidents, 19; vehicle accidents, seven; rescue incident, one; investigate various incidents, six; and assist residents, two.