Crime beat 2/26
[Subheading]
Jim Tatum
Thursday, February 25, 2010

Heavy find
A North Charleston woman reported that she was cleaning trash from the wood line at the rear of her apartment complex when she found a blue blanket and began trying to drag it out to put it in the trash. She noticed it was very heavy so she unfolded it to discover a sawed off shotgun. The gun was very rusty so she could not breach it to see if it was loaded. She turned it over to sheriff’s deputies who took it into evidence.
Not mine
A deputy pulled over a car at Orangeburg Road and Cone Lane after the driver made an improper turn. As the officer approached the car, he could smell marijuana coming from the vehicle. He asked the driver to get out of the car and asked what they were doing. The driver said he and his passengers were from North Charleston and they had nothing illegal inside the vehicle. He then gave consent for the officer to search the car.
The deputy then asked for identification from all the passengers in the car. One subject in the back told the deputy, upon being asked to clarify his name, that he was nervous. He also told the deputy the group had been smoking marijuana in North Charleston.
It wasn’t long before the deputy found a bag of marijuana and four blunts. At this point, all four subjects began pointing at each other and yelling for someone to claim responsibility. No one did, so they were all transported to the Law Enforcement Annex. One of the subjects, a juvenile, was released to the custody of his aunt. Another subject was found to have a warrant against him for a weapons violation and was held. Three of the four were housed in the detention center.
Modern art?
Someone painted the rear of the Ashley River High School building and its water tower in red paint with a variety of epithets and pictures of penises. The principal said he was alerted by telephone call that someone was going to vandalize the school.
As it turned out, someone had text messages from the suspects, who were called into the office and ultimately admitted they did it.
The school declined to press charges, preferring to handle the situation in-house.