Last Updated on 10/13/2008

Published on 6/5/2008

A case of child neglect is being investigated after the Georgetown County Sheriff’s Office received a call from a man who said his wife left their children home alone overnight Sunday.
The Georgetown man said he had to work all night out of town, and when he returned home at about 7:20 a.m. his 18-month-old was standing by the back door crying. His 10-year-old was asleep on the living room floor and his 5-year-old was in a bedroom.
“His wife was not anywhere around the residence,” the report states. “This is not the first time (the man) has come home to find the children left alone.”
The man said he called his wife on her cell phone and said he was tired of this happening and that he was calling the police. The woman would not tell her husband where she was or when she was returning home, the report states.
Deputies talked to the 10-year-old, who said he is unsure when his mother left but he knows it was after midnight.
The boy said before she left, his mother said she had to go “get something” and did not know how long it would take.

Sheriff’s Office
• The don’t-give-up, fight-back attitude of a 59-year-old woman led to the arrest of a man who allegedly snatched her purse while she was outside Litchfield Coffee House on Willbrook Boulevard Monday afternoon. The woman told deputies she was sitting in her car talking to her son on her cell phone when the suspect — a 49-year-old Murrells Inlet man who has “bad teeth,” according to the woman — reached through her open window and grabbed her pocketbook.
The woman honked her horn to draw attention and then got out of her car and started chasing the thief through the parking lot.
When the suspect jumped into a car, another man who works nearby ran out to assist the victim. The woman repeatedly beat on the car window, demanding that her purse be returned, but the suspect refused and then he drove out of the parking lot.
Because she chased him to his car, the woman was able to get the man’s license tag number, which she provided to the deputies.  A little while later, the man’s car was spotted on Sandfiddler Road and a traffic stop was made. By that time the purse was no longer in the suspect’s car, but he was positively identified by both the victim and the man who was helping her during the ordeal. The man was charged with purse snatching, drug law violations and driving under suspension.
• DeBordieu security called 911 Sunday night because of a group of disorderly teenagers.
The guard said no one was supposed to be at the house on Dunes Oak Lane because the owner was out of state. However, the teens were spotted on the property.
Four teenagers were found by deputies hiding in an upstairs bathroom. There were several cars on the property, and inside one of them was an open beer can. Also in the car was a small amount of marijuana and a pipe.
A 17-year-old from Columbia admitted the car was his. He also said it was his aunt’s home. She was contacted and informed about  the party that had taken place at her home.
She said she had no idea her nephew was at the house but she did not want him to get in trouble, so she told the deputy it was OK that he was at the residence.
The parents of the other teens were contacted to come and pick up their children.
The 17-year-old was charged with simple possession of marijuana.
• An Indian Hut Road man said he thinks one of his neighbors may be to blame for a burglary at his home recently. He said both of his neighbors know he has pain medications inside the house. Besides the medicine, the man also is missing a wedding band, a diamond ring, hundreds of dollars’ worth of change and a $500 watch.
• An $8,500 Rolex watch was reported stolen from a home on South Waccamaw Drive in Garden City May 30. The owner said the last time he saw the watch it was on the kitchen counter. The man said his son had a party at the house and invited some friends and those friends invited other friends, so it’s unknown who took the watch. The partygoers were not supposed to go inside the house, but the victim said he saw three individuals in the kitchen.
• A case of vandalism was reported at Carolina Rheumatology on Highway 17 Business in Murrells Inlet May 30. Someone removed a handicap parking sign from a post and spray painted the word “juice” on the back of the building.
• Deputies were sent to a home on Russell Drive in Pawleys Island the evening of May 30 and met with a woman who said a man she knows assaulted her and her friends.
She said they were in her house watching TV when the man walked through the back door and started “fighting everyone,” the report states. He grabbed one woman and threw her against the wall and hit  man on the head with a beer bottle. The man, who was upset because his ex-girlfriend was there, left in a vehicle and has not been arrested.
• A woman who was checking on her cousin’s home on Pinewood Road discovered it had been burglarized May 29. She said a door was open and there was jewelry on the ground outside the house.
More than $12,000 in items were missing, including a pair of earrings worth $5,000, a $1,600 flat-screen TV, a $250 high school ring and a bottle of prescription medicine. There are no suspects.
• A truck was reportedly stolen from the parking lot of Vienna Pizza on Highway 17 Bypass in Murrells Inlet Monday evening. A Myrtle Beach woman said she parked the truck at about 5:30 p.m. and it was last seen by a witness about 45 minutes later.

Compiled by Scott Harper