Storms cause one-vehicle wreck

Heavy winds and rain from Tropical Storm Fay caused numerous rush-hour traffic problems around the metro area Aug. 25, including a single-vehicle accident on Interstate 575 just south of the Howell Bridge Road exit. Cherokee County Fire and Emergency Services responded when a small black pickup truck left the highway, went down an embankment and landed in a pool of water caused by the rain. The driver, a 43-year-old female, was removed from the vehicle complaining of injuries to her back and her ribs, and she was taken by ambulance to Northside Hospital-Cherokee. No other injuries were reported. One lane of I-575 was blocked until the wreckage was cleared. The cause of the accident is currently under investigation.

• Woodstock Police are looking for a pickup truck suspected of being used to steal a utility trailer from a residential community during the early morning hours of Aug. 16. A witness to the crime described the pickup truck as a white dual-wheeled (dually) pickup truck with a long bed, vertical tractor-trailer style exhaust pipes mounted behind the truck cab and the word “Dandy” on the passenger side door in black letters. Detectives say the name might be affiliated with some type of business as a witness recalled seeing more letters/numbers beneath the word, but he could not see them clearly.  The two occupants were white males in their 30s. According to Woodstock Police Detective Paul Brown, the men set two orange cones in the street just before they dumped the contents of the trailer onto the street.  The suspects retrieved the cones when they towed the trailer away. The stolen trailer is described as a black 2004 6-foot-by-12-foot double-axle dump trailer, manufactured by Triple Crown, with white wagon wheels and a chrome toolbox affixed to the tongue.  The trailer has a blue number 4 painted on the front. Anyone with any information about the suspect vehicle or stolen trailer is asked to call Woodstock Police detectives at (770) 592-6030.

• A Cherokee Sheriff’s deputy responded to a call of a burglary in progress at a business on Lower Union Hill Road Aug. 25. The business owner told the officer an employee opened the business that morning and noticed the door that leads to the office from the shop had been kicked open, according to the report. The employee also noticed a window at the rear of the shop had been broken and unlocked and there were muddy footprints, the report said. The owner reported that about $40 was missing from a cash register in the shop, and about $141 was missing from a desk in the office. The owner also said that a tape from a videocamera on a shelf in the office was missing, along with six other tapes that were kept in a locked storage container and the key to the storage container that was hidden in the office, the report said. The case is under investigation.

• A resident of a home on Mistflower Court in Ball Ground called the Cherokee Sheriff’s Office to report that she thought there was someone in her house Aug. 26. According to the report, the homeowner told the officer who responded that she was getting dressed when the phone rang, and she wrapped a towel around herself and went to the kitchen to answer her cordless phone. The woman’s daughter, who had called, said it sounded like someone else had answered the phone from within the residence, so the woman hung up and the caller ID indicated the phone was still in use, the woman told police. The woman said she got dressed and left her home to wait for a family member to arrive, and she locked the front door after she left, but when she returned, the front door was unlocked, the report said. The officer searched the home, but found no evidence of forced entry, or any signs of muddy tracks that might have been present due to the wet weather conditions, the report said. Additionally, the woman told the officer that nothing was missing, the report said.

• Cherokee Sheriff’s deputies responded to a call of a fight in progress at Little River Bar and Grill on Bells Ferry Road Aug. 22. Upon arriving at the scene, an officer found a group of people gathered in the parking lot with a bouncer, the report said. One of the people identified himself as an off-duty police officer and said someone had hit his friend with a beer bottle and that the attack was unprovoked and identified another man as the assailant, the report said. The officer approached the alleged assailant, who had blood on his face and clothing, and asked if the man needed medical attention, and the man told the officer the blood was not his, the report said. The man said he was at the bar with his girlfriend when someone started to “kiss on her” and he told the person to stop and he shoved the person and the fight began, according to the report. The officer detected a strong odor of alcohol about the person of the man, who seemed to be slurring his words, the officer said. After talking with other witnesses, the officer arrested Kenneth Phillip Reece, 46, of Woodstock on charges of aggravated assault, simple battery and public drunkenness and transported him to the Cherokee County Adult Detention Center.