OTHER UNUSUAL STORIES IN 2009
A listing of the other unusual stories that 2009 brought us:
JANUARY
• A 21-year-old woman leads Palmetto Dunes security staff on a low-speed chase -- ranging from 7 to 10 mph -- after falling asleep in her SUV and blocking both lanes of traffic. The driver smiled and waved at officers during the chase. When stopped, she said, "Just ask my sister," though she was alone and no questions had been asked. Surprisingly, she passed a sobriety test, but was charged with reckless driving and driving without a license.
• A Beaufort man, who police reports said "smelled like a brewery," randomly knocks on doors until police arrive and tell him to cut it out. The man tells the cops he'd heard gunshots and was trying to investigate. There was no evidence of shots having been fired. He was charged with disorderly conduct.
• A 44-year-old Hardeeville man attacks county deputies with his fingernails during a traffic stop after being asked if he was carrying any drugs. "No," the man said, "you can check my pockets." They did and found pot and cocaine. He was charged with drug offenses and resisting arrest.
• A 45-year-old Bluffton man apparently tries to use White Out to convince officials he's paid his fines. Authorities were tipped off by the obvious coating of correcting fluid and the crooked typing on the documents. The author was charged with forgery.
• A 24-year-old Okatie man, pulled over in a traffic stop, apparently thinks honesty was his best policy. When deputies noticed pot in the man's glove box, he told them, "I just ate some crack. I'm really high."
• Three men are charged with drug trafficking after the U.S. Postal Service delivered 16 pounds of marijuana to a Hilton Head Island address.
• A 20-year-old Ohio magazine salesman, warned by Bluffton police about laws against soliciting, tells cops "my company doesn't care about soliciting laws." The cops did. They told him to beat it, but returned a short time later to find him at it again. He told them he planned to resume knocking on doors as soon as they left. He was arrested and charged with trespassing.
• A car slams into the dining room of a Bluffton home, leaving the room "in pieces," according to a police report. The cops found bits of the car in the room, but the driver had fled. No one was injured.
FEBRUARY
• A 29-year-old Hilton Head man enters an island elementary school through an unlocked door to watch the pornographic tape he'd brought with him. He was charged with trespassing and fleeing to evade arrest.
• A naked man barricades himself inside a Hilton Head home and wanders au naturel around Spanish Wells Plantation until the police arrive to arrest him on a variety of charges.
• A 45-year-old Hilton Head man, who'd stopped to relieve himself by a pond along Palmetto Parkway, thought he saw someone drowning. He first told police it was a white woman. He then said it was a black man. Then he said the "victim" was most likely a ghost. The would-be lifeguard is charged with disorderly conduct.
MARCH
• Cassius, a 205-pound great Dane that lives in Hilton Head Plantation, barks his owner awake late one night. Thinking the hefty hound needs to answer a call of nature, the owner stepped outside to find a neighbor's house on fire. Firefighters said the dog's quick action kept the flames confined to the garage.
• A 29-year-old Hilton Head man is found apparently drunk and drooling inside his car at an island strip club. He was charged with disorderly conduct.
APRIL
• A Sunny Glen resident finds a deer leg in his mailbox. Since the leg wasn't postmarked, there was no way to trace what became of the rest of the animal.
• Three alligators are shot with arrows in separate incidents in Bluffton area ponds.
• A 29-year-old Hilton Head man, arrested on DUI and open container charges, seems to accept his fate. Of the sobriety test, the man tells officers: "Am I going to pass this test? No. You know that as well as I do."
• A 25-year-old Hilton Head man is charged with disorderly conduct after he randomly slaps women on the rear and men on the back of the head at an island bar.
MAY
• A 23-year-old Ohio tourist is found wandering around a Hilton Head apartment complex in his underwear. When the apparently drunken man couldn't tell police his name or where he was staying, officers used the man's cell phone to call his mom. Mom identified him. The cops arrested him on a disorderly conduct charge.
• A 26-year-old Hilton Head man arranged his own sobriety test for police, offering a routine from River Dance. No word on the quality of the performance, though the cops charged the dancer with disorderly conduct.
JUNE
• A Bluffton woman thinks the rattle she heard outside her home was the sprinkler system. It wasn't. It was a large canebrake rattlesnake. Deputies are called to dispatch the reptile.
• A 50-year-old Savannah man is arrested outside a Hilton Head nightspot after shouting at women and lying down in the middle of the road.
• A 45-year-old Ridgeland woman is suspected of going door-to-door to practice unlicensed dentistry. Many of her "patients" are immigrants who are afraid to report their dental distress.
• Daniel Rowe, a visitor from Tennessee, lands a record black tip shark off Hilton Head. The beast weighed 163 pounds, 14 ounces. The old record was 133 pounds.
• A group of Bluffton High School students is caught in the act of painting the school's portico with water soluble paint. Their punishment? Cleanup detail.
JULY
• A Lady's Island woman agrees to surrender 42 cats to the county's animal control unit after the cats were found living in filthy conditions.
• Two Hilton Head Island men are arrested after getting into a fist fight in the parking lot of the pawn shop where they'd gone to try to sell stolen items.
• A fake delivery man, complete with uniform, robs a Tanger Outlet Center 1 employee after being let into the back door of the business.
AUGUST
• A 10-foot alligator ties up traffic on U.S. 17 in Hardeeville. The roaming reptile is captured and released to the wild.
• A Hilton Head resident returns home to find a burglar dangling from his balcony.
• A 12-foot alligator, described by one local expert as "loco," body surfs on the beach near the Sea Pines Club. No one was hurt, and the gator is last seen swimming confidently out to sea.
OCTOBER
• A 20-year-old Kentucky man is charged with damaging protected sea oats near South Forest Beach after he "waters" them (you can guess how) and tramples them in the presence of police.
NOVEMBER
• Two goats lock horns on Sea Island Parkway on St. Helena Island, tying up traffic for more than an hour.
• A county deputy's chain of seismic sneezes sends his cruiser crashing into another car on U.S. 278 in Bluffton.
• Two county deputies draw their weapons during a traffic stop after a passenger puts his hands down his pants. Turns out he was just scratching an itch. He was, however, carrying what appeared to be a bag of pot. He was charged with an open container violation and a possession of marijuana.
rss
mobile
Feeds
