West Columbia

tSunset Blvd., 400 block: A woman was arrested at 4:47 a.m. Tuesday after an officer spotted her urinating in a parking lot. When the officer approached the 38–year–old woman, she was standing over a puddle and pulling up her pants. The officer asked her what she was doing, and she said she was using the “restroom.” He told her that going to the bathroom in a parking lot was against the law, but she told him she really had to go and couldn’t find an open restroom. She was cited for indecent exposure and warned to find a proper toilet in the future.

t12th Street, 200 block: A woman came into police headquarters at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday to contest a speeding ticket she had received earlier that day. The woman told the responding officer while she was on her way to work that morning, she had been cited for speeding, and she wanted the ticket removed from her record because it would cost her two points off her license. When the responding officer pointed out that she was doing 65 mph in a 45 mph zone, she replied that she “always speeded” through that particular area of the city as no one else was on the roads at that time of the morning who knew how to drive. She said that the officer who ticketed her was picking on her, and he should have simply let her go without citing her. She repeatedly told the responding officer she was a good driver and could speed and still be safe, unlike a lot of the idiots on the road. She said the officer knew her and wanted to pull her over because “everyone in West Columbia’ knew her.” When the woman’s reasoning didn’t work with the responding officer, she then accused the citing officer of being prejudiced because of her race and/or gender. The officer assured her the ticket had nothing to do with her race/or gender but only the fact that she was driving 20 miles over the speed limit. She cheerfully assured him there was no need for her to get a ticket that morning because she always drove 20 miles over the limit in that area. When all of her arguments failed, she wrote a check for the ticket and abruptly left the police station.

tAugusta Road, 2400 block: A man was arrested at 12:30 a.m. Wednesday after officers saw him swaying back and forth while sitting on the sidewalk as if he were listening to music. When they approached the man, he reeked of alcohol and his speech was slurred, and he was presumed to be drunk. Then he explained the slurred speech was from a previous motorcycle accident where he suffered four head injuries but that didn’t explain the alcohol on his breath. Before he could explain that, he went to sleep. Officers woke the man and asked if he had been drinking, and he admitted to having seven beers but assured them that he could “hold” his liquor.” He was cited for public drunkenness.

tAugusta Road, 200 block: a man called police at 3 p.m. Thursday after he said a man accompanied by four other men appeared at his door and wanted to beat him up. The man told police when the men knocked on his door, they demanded that he step outside so that they could beat him up for breaking into one of their cars. The resident said he had no idea what they were talking about, and he never broke into anyone’s car. One of the men insisted he had broken into his car and told the resident to “be a man” and take his punishment. That’s when he called police, and the gang left, the man said.

Forest Acres

tVerner Street, 4000 block: Police were called to a home at 9 a.m. Thursday when two brothers got into a fight over a mo–ped. The 46–year–old alleged victim said he went to the residence to confront his 54–year–old brother over the whereabouts of his mo–ped. The younger brother said the older brother told him the mo–ped belonged to their father and not to the younger brother. The older brother said he loaned it to a friend of the father. An argument ensued, and the younger brother claimed the older brother beat him up and dragged him out of the house while kicking him. The older brother admitted to forcefully pulling his younger brother out of the house, but he denied hitting him. The younger brother was adamant about prosecuting the older brother, and officers advised him of how to go about pressing charges.

tPointe Vedra Road, 100 block: Officers were called to a home at 9:30 a.m. Thursday after someone reported marijuana plants growing in a front yard. When officers arrived, they found a three–foot plant and a one–foot plant thriving in plain sight of the roadway around a mailbox. They uprooted the plants, and no arrests were made.

tBayview Drive, 5th block: A man called police at 2 a.m. Thursday after a man said the mother of his children was trying to break into his home. The 36–year–old man said the 32–year–old “babymoma” kept trying to get into his home, and when he refused to let her in, she knocked out his bedroom window, cutting her hands and splattering blood on the walls in the process. When she couldn’t get that window open, she then went to the front door and smashed the glass in it, then tried to reach in and unlock the door. The woman left when the man told her he had called police, but she continued to call his home and cell phone incessantly while officers were taking the report. It wasn’t clear why she wanted to get into the man’s apartment.

Richland Sheriff

tGarners Ferry Road, 7500 block: A woman called police at 11 a.m. Wednesday after she said someone robbed her strawberry stand. The woman told deputies she was tending her fruit stand and had turned around to pick up a crate of strawberries to divide into cartons when an unknown man ran up and grabbed her money bag. The woman said she had $200 in the bag. The man grabbed the money and ran across a parking lot to a waiting car. She was able to give police a partial license plate, and they are investigating the incident.

tHumphrey Drive, 3000 block: A man was arrested at 8 p.m. Monday after he and another man got into a fight and police discovered the car they were in was stolen. Neighbors called police because the two were fighting in the street near the car. When deputies arrived, the men had calmed down, but the deputies noticed the front of the dash of the car had been removed, and wires were hanging down as if the vehicle had been hot–wired. When they ran the plates, the description came back for another make and model car, and when they ran the vin number on the car the men were in, it came back as stolen. Each man claimed the other was driving it so a DNA swab was done on the steering wheel to determine the thief.