For two St. Helena Island men, this Valentine’s Day is best forgotten

For two St. Helena Island men, Valentine’s Day was more about a speeding ticket and a broken engagement rather than flowers and romance.

In the first incident, a driver was ticketed for reckless driving shortly after noon Tuesday after he was clocked doing 105 mph in a 55 mph zone, according to a Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office report. When the deputy pulled the driver over on Land’s End Road, he told the officer he was speeding because he was just had a fight with his girlfriend.

A separate incident happened on Hackles Drive.

Around 10:30 p.m., a woman called 911 to say someone had just pointed a gun at her, according to a Sheriff’s Office report. She said she didn’t want to meet or speak with deputies and hung up on dispatch several times. When deputies arrived, the caller had already left.

Her boyfriend then drove up and told deputies he was there to pick up his engagement ring after an earlier fight with his girlfriend, according to the report. The woman was mad at him “because he would not give her enough attention,” he told deputies. She allegedly hit his car several times with a metal pole from a standing fan and he dropped a bottle of wine when he tried to stop her.

Deputies saw the broken wine bottle, the fan stand pole and the dents and white marks on the man’s car, according to the report. The man said his gun wasn’t used during the incident and he allowed deputies to take his handgun from the glove compartment to check that it was legally carried. It was.

No charges were filed.

This story was originally published February 15, 2017 at 3:43 PM with the headline "For two St. Helena Island men, this Valentine’s Day is best forgotten."