A freeway motorist gave her the finger, then sent her nasty Facebook messages

A Byron woman headed north on Interstate 475 was driving to dinner with her boyfriend to celebrate her 43rd birthday the evening of Sept. 21. Before they made it to the Thomaston Road exit, a woman at the wheel of another car pulled up alongside the pair and began flipping them the bird. Or as a sheriff’s report described the act, “placing (her) middle finger in the air.” The report doesn’t explain exactly why the woman might have been giving the other one the bird, but it appeared that the bird-flipper might be a romantic rival. The bird-flipper, later identified as a 28-year-old, also mouthed the words, “You (expletive-expletive), Imma beat yo ass,” the sheriff’s report said. The couple on its way to dinner missed the exit at Thomaston Road because the alleged antagonist, riding in the right lane, was blocking the route off the freeway. Later, after the couple took another exit and sat down to dinner, the Byron woman began receiving Facebook messages from a woman believed to be the bird-flipper. The messages were said to be harassing and intimidating and included “sexual statements” about the dating couple, the sheriff’s write-up said. The Byron woman later broke off her relationship with the man she was with that evening. She told a sheriff’s deputy upon reporting the incident that she just wanted “a paper trail” to document the threatening encounter.

A shoplifting suspect at the Family Dollar on Pio Nono Avenue near Anthony Road in Macon was spotted, as a sheriff’s report of the Sept. 27 incident noted, “concealing a bottle of Vaseline lotion on his person.” A woman who works at the store told the suspect, a 68-year-old man, that she had seen him hide the aloe-infused item in his pants. “The suspect produced the bottle of lotion from his back pocket and handed it to her,” the sheriff’s report said. The man then took off outside with other unknown items he was thought to have stolen in tow. A sheriff’s deputy watched security camera footage of the episode and recognized the suspect from another theft the day before. The deputy rode to the man’s house and arrested him.

Dispatches: In late July, the pastor of Macon’s Church of Living God found a man sleeping on the church bus. The pastor, according to a sheriff’s report, ran the man off. A few days later the pastor reported that someone had busted some windows on the bus. . . . On Sept. 26, a 33-year-old Macon woman was charged with shoplifting at the North Avenue Kroger when she allegedly tried to steal some iced tea and a cooked chicken from the deli.

Note to midstate law enforcement agencies: Email reports of unusual situations your officers encounter to Telegraph reporter and Cop Shop columnist Joe Kovac Jr. at jkovac@macon.com.