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Last Friday night, a Garden City man heading west on Highway 80 evidently realized there was a multi-agency safety checkpoint set up by police at the intersection with Highway 307.

Since this particular driver knew his driver’s license was suspended, he pulled over behind one of the police cars at the checkpoint.

"I was standing there with (Officer Blair) Jeffcoat, and we motioned for him to come towards us," said Officer Benji Selph.

Instead, the man suddenly made a u-turn directly in front of an oncoming car, earning him the complete attention of the Garden City officers. The small Pontiac sped away. As we’ve mentioned before, the police get a little upset when drivers refuse an invitation to their party.

Knowing this driver would prove to be a scintillating guest, Sgt. Gilbert Ballard and Officers Selph and Jeffcoat left the checkpoint to issue a more personal invite. To help convince the driver of his social faux pas, Garden City Police Officers Randall Corey and Lawrence Martin, along with Port Wentworth Sgt. Larry Rawlins, came in from another direction.

The driver tried to turn left onto Sharon Park Drive, but couldn’t quite negotiate the turn at high speed and wound up on the grassy shoulder in front of Cubbedge Diesel Service. Getting back on Highway 80, the driver headed east again—in the westbound lane.

That tactic wasn’t working too well, so the driver turned left onto DeLoach, then left again onto Bisbee and right onto Sharon Park. Despite the dizzing maneuvers, Officer Selph stayed right behind him, hanging on like a summer cold.

When everything goes wrong, there’s always mom. The driver slewed into his mother’s backyard and along the fence towards a trailer behind the house. But once there, he evidently changed his mind and settled on a little exercise before calling it a night. He went for a jog—across the backyard and over the fence into the neighbor’s yard, with that pesky Officer Selph following.

Unfortunately for the driver, Sgt. Ballard scaled the fence first and was waiting with open arms on the other side. Officer Selph and Sgt. Ballard convinced the recalcitrant driver to give up as the rest of the reception committee arrived, and the driver surrendered to the inevitable. He was polite and cooperative once he was in handcuffs, Officer Selph said.

"He said he wanted to see what it was like to run from the police," Officer Selph said.

The man was seen by MedStar personnel at the scene for a minor cut on his hand received when he climbed the chain link fence, but refused treatment and was taken to the Garden City Police Department before being transported to jail.

Refusing to stop for the police is such an enormous social blunder that we have to wonder why anyone feels compelled to push their luck right off a sheer cliff as one man did Tuesday morning.

The man called Garden City police and reported that his small truck had been stolen. Officer Sal Mullgrav responded and took the pertinent information. A description of the vehicle was given out over the radio so that, hopefully, the missing truck could be located quickly. So far, so good, right? Wrong.

The thing is, police departments have all kinds of high-tech equipment, like radios. Radios keep a department's officers in close contact at all times, but they do oh, so much more than that. They allow officers in different departments to talk to one another, too. And boy, do they ever talk.

It seems this particular complainant had loaned his truck to another man who, like the driver mentioned above, declined an invitation for a chat with law enforcement officers—Chatham County Sheriff’s Deputies, in this case. The Sheriff’s Department ultimately delivered their invitation up close and personal, tossing in a night’s free lodging at their very own facility for good measure and having the borrowed truck towed.

Now, loaning your vehicle to someone who runs from the law, gets himself arrested and your poor, innocent truck impounded should be enough bad luck for anyone. But rather than quit while he was ahead, suck it up and pay the impound fee to get his truck back legitimately, the vehicle owner chose to take the low road. The high road may be the long way around, but the low road is mostly potholes. Trust us on this.

Chatham County wasted no time passing the word that the "stolen" truck was actually safe and sound and parked in the impound lot. Officer Mullgrav made sure that the owner was soon safe and sound and parked in a holding cell at Garden City police headquarters, in that exquisitely uncomfortable condition popularly known as "out of the potholes and into the frying pan."

He was charged with filing a false report of a crime.

In the ruffled feathers can cook your goose department, an old dispute between two local men was rekindled when they met at Globe Video on Dean Forest Road to discuss the matter. The situation grew heated, and one of the men climbed into his truck, intending to leave.

Unwilling to let the argument go, the other man tried to pull the truck door open and keep the driver from leaving. A struggle for control of the truck’s door went on for a few seconds, with neither party evidently able to gain the upper hand for long.

"The man in the truck got out of the vehicle with a gun," said Garden City Police Corporal Bruce Saunders, "in a threatening manner."

The weapon established a new pecking order, and within minutes the man got back into his truck and headed for his Village Drive home. His opponent, however, called police and followed the truck. Chatham County dispatchers summoned Garden City police, who flocked to the scene as dispatchers kept them apprised of both men’s whereabouts.

Officer Donald Menger arrived first, followed in short order by Cpl. Saunders and Officer Shawn Myers. The officers planned to talk to both men to determine exactly what had happened. No charges were pending at that point, but the man accused of having the weapon apparently decided to change all that. He flew the coop.

Naturally, the police took off after him, chasing him for about a quarter of a mile. The man went around a trailer and up a berm towards the horse stables. "I was about a trailer and a half back and saw him go over the berm," Cpl. Saunders said. "I told Officer Menger where he was."

Officer Menger intercepted the man, who got a quick lesson in how it feels to be held at gunpoint by someone who can legally do so. Cpl. Saunders and Officer Myers arrived a few seconds later, and, his wings clipped, the man was taken into custody without further incident.

"He’d been ducking and dodging," Cpl. Saunders said, "and we ran a good ways, so he was probably getting winded."

Police didn’t find a gun, but several witnesses confirmed that the man had one. Once the man was in custody, it was the police officers’ turn to talk turkey. They charged the man with obstruction, and another charge of aggravated assault is pending.

It should come as no surprise to anyone when cops rat you out to other cops. You have to expect that sort of thing from people whose job title is "law enforcement officer." But when you wreck your car and your passenger volunteers the information that the two of you just left a restaurant after a few drinks, it’s time to reassess either your behavior or your friendships.

A Garden City driver left the parking lot of a restaurant on Main Street Friday and hit the gas—hard. Her car shot across the multi-lane road and took a nosedive straight into the ditch.

When questioned by police at the scene, the uninjured passenger told Officer John Murphy exactly how the wreck occurred, mentioning in passing that he and the driver had consumed alcoholic beverages at the restaurant.

The driver, who suffered minor injuries and had to wait until rescue personnel could pry open her door, was taken by MedStar to Memorial Health University Hospital.

A Port Wentworth police officer with no little experience spotting people in possession of drugs bagged three drivers in less than ten days recently.

Two of the three were from out of state, traveling on I-95 when they were stopped for traffic violations. A 31-year-old man from New York City was stopped by the officer on Valentine’s Day as he approached the Georgia Welcome Center. Port Wentworth’s K-9 officer, Missy, arrived with her handler to back up the officer.

The New York man’s nervous behavior alerted officers that all was not right with his world, and after obtaining permission to search the vehicle, Missy alerted officers to the source of the man’s jitters—several partially burned marijuana cigarettes, a concealed knife, and a bag containing suspected marijuana. The man was arrested and his vehicle towed.

A South Carolina man stopped for driving 91 mph in a 65 mph zone couldn’t seem to decide whether he had been to a funeral in Tallahassee or visiting his sick aunt in Jacksonville. A passenger in the car was also stymied when asked by police where the two men went and the reason for their trip to Florida.

Once again, K-9 Officer Missy and her partner were nearby in case the officer needed backup. The driver was reluctant to let officers search his vehicle, so Missy took a few whiffs of the car’s aura. The driver blurted that he’d been smoking marijuana in the vehicle, evidently hoping to avoid a full-scale search.

But it was too late. Missy alerted on the vehicle, which was then searched. Five envelopes and a plastic bag, all containing suspected marijuana, were seized. So was the driver, who was taken to the Chatham County Detention Center.