The Chattooga County (Georgia) Sheriff's Office smashed in a driver's window and found moonshine inside his car.
According to an incident report, Deputy Josiah Hemm drove to the Chattooga County Memorial Home after someone reported people loudly arguing outside. When he got there, he said, Hemm smelled alcohol and decided to "hang out." He saw a guy with a busted lip trying to leave in his car, so he tried to stop him.
While Hemm approached, according to the report, a woman in front of him told the man with the busted lip, "You need to leave because the cops are on their way." The woman had not seen Hemm. The man with the busted lip, later identified as 36-year-old Lucas Vandermark, smelled like alcohol, Hemm wrote. The deputy tried to talk to him, but Vandermark drove away.
Hemm followed, according to the report. He saw Vandermark run off the roadway twice. Hemm flipped on his blue lights, and Vandermark pulled into a parking at 195 Back Penn Road. By that point, Deputy Thomas Sainthill was already there. Deputy Derek Mitchell and Cpl. Jerry Davenport responded, too.
Hemm explained why he stopped him.
"The subject was repeatedly stating that I'm lying and that I was making a mistake by pulling him over because he's a good person," Hemm wrote in his report.
Vandermark, of Crest Drive in LaFayette, refused to get out of his car and kept his doors locked, according to the report. Sainthill then broke his passenger side window, reached in and unlocked the door. After deputies put him in handcuffs, Vandermark declined to give a blood, breath or urine sample to test his blood alcohol content.
During a search of the car, Mitchell found a glass jar with moonshine inside.
The sheriff's office charged Vandermark with possession of an untaxed alcoholic beverage, driving under the influence, open container violation and obstruction of officers.
Contact staff writer Tyler Jett at 423-757-6476 or tjett@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @LetsJett.