Hit-and-Run Incident, Attempted Shoplifting, Cut Trees

A woman who lives on Virgil Langford Road contacted the Oconee County Sheriff’s Office on November 14. Someone had been cutting trees on land adjacent to her land, she told the deputy, and the person had cut trees on her land, too. The two property owners told deputies they disagree on where the property line is.

Deputies responded to a report of a hit-and-run accident on Atlanta Highway, near North Burson Road, on November 13, around 8:30am. The woman driver told authorities that she had been stopped behind traffic, waiting for another car to turn into a driveway, when a white Chevrolet Avalanche hit her car from behind. The woman whose car was hit got the tag number when the vehicle pulled around her car and headed toward Barrow County. Oconee County ran the tag, put out a bulletin and subsequently went to Jackson County, where the Avalanche was registered. Sheriff’s deputies there had detained Ricardo Perez, who told Oconee deputies--through a translating neighbor--that he had left the scene of the accident because he didn’t have a driver’s license and because he was scared. Perez was taken to the Oconee County Jail and charged with leaving the scene of an accident, driving without a license and following too closely.

On November 12, close to 6pm, Tara Willingham, 26, of Bogart, was stopped by the loss prevention officer at Lowe’s on Epps Bridge Parkway. She was allegedly trying to leave the store with $185 worth of merchandise in her purse. She fled the store in her car, but was stopped on Hodges Mill Road by Oconee County Deputies and returned to the store. Officials there identified her as the perpetrator. She was charged with shoplifting and with a license violation.

On November 12, around 3:20pm, an Oconee County Sheriff’s Deputy was dispatched to Walmart, where the store’s loss prevention officer had two people in custody. They were Randy Bates and Donna Hornsby. The officer said they had taken items from the store, concealing them on their persons and in a fold-up laundry basket. He said they would be charged with shoplifting. The deputy transported the two to the Oconee County Jail.

On November 10, two teenage girls, 15 and 17 years old, were stopped by a loss prevention officer at Kohl's and accused of shoplifting. They had allegedly attempted to steal merchandise worth $1,078, including electronics, clothes and jewelry, all of which was recovered. The 15-year-old was released to her parents, while the 17-year-old was taken to the Oconee County Jail and booked on felony charges of theft by shoplifting.