Hilton Head man ‘taken down’ after he was found sleeping in a running car. It wasn’t his

A Hilton Head Island man was charged with public disorderly conduct and marijuana possession Sunday morning after he was found sleeping in a vehicle that wasn’t his.

A Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office deputy was sent to the Kangaroo Express gas station on Gumtree Road around 7:30 a.m. following a report of a suspicious person, according to a Sheriff’s Office report. The deputyfound a red Range Rover in front of the gas station with a man sleeping inside, leaning against the driver’s side window while the vehicle was running.

Another man was standing outside the vehicle knocking on the glass to wake the man up. The tapper said he was the owner of the vehicle, the report said.

The deputy knocked on the glass to wake the man up and asked him to turn off the vehicle and get out.

Once the man got out, the deputy asked him to step to the front of the car. Instead, the man “pushed his way past (the deputy) and started walking toward U.S. 278,” the report said.

The deputy grabbed the back of the man’s jacket when he did not follow his directions and the man allegedly, “turned around and grabbed at (the deputy’s) arm.”

When the deputy told him to relax and stand in front of the vehicle, the man replied, “That’s not f------ happening.”

The man then walked inside the gas station.

The deputy caught up with him, and, as the man walked toward the restroom, “utilized a soft empty hand technique and executed an arm-bar takedown and placed the male in handcuffs,” the report said.

An odor of marijuana and alcohol was on the man and his eyes were glassy and bloodshot, the deputy wrote in the report. A search of the man revealed a “balled up” paper towel in his right front sweatshirt pocket that contained suspected marijuana.

Inside the vehicle, deputies found a green prescription bottle with no label with suspected marijuana residue and two partially consumed Bud Light bottles.

The vehicle owner told the deputy that he had been drinking in the vehicle earlier that morning, but could not say how he and the man who was charged ended up together. According to the report, that owner was not charged and was told to find someone to take he and his vehicle home.

The sleeper was taken to the Beaufort County Detention Center.

Kangaroo Express on Gumtree Road - happened around 7:30 a.m. on Sunday

This story was originally published December 5, 2017 at 1:30 PM with the headline "Hilton Head man ‘taken down’ after he was found sleeping in a running car. It wasn’t his."