By Dusty Vassey



TIFTON – It was a wild weekend for the Tift County Sheriff’s Office as several incidents were reported throughout Tift County and some of them were out of the ordinary.

Around 10:30 a.m. Saturday, a Tifton man came to the Sheriff’s Office with an unusual package, a modified trash can holding a rattlesnake. The man, Willie Cooper, said that he had found some children playing with the trash can on Golden Road and noticed the container’s lid. The cage-type lid read “Caution Live Snake.” A venomous timber rattler about six feet long with around nine rattles was inside.

Animal control was called and officer Brandi Craven retrieved the snake so that it could be disposed of properly. She said that the snake had most likely fallen out of someone’s truck as they drove down Golden Road.

No one was hurt by the dangerous snake.

A Tifton woman told the Tift County Sheriff’s Office that a Hispanic male known to her forced his way into her home on Robert Oliver Drive around 6:30 p.m. Saturday. The man reportedly forced her and two other people into the bathroom there.

Around 30 minutes later, at 6:58 p.m., Narciso Garcia, 28, of Tifton, was arrested on Sutton Circle for driving without a license and driving under the influence of alcohol by the Sheriff’s deputies. He was later charged with two counts of battery in relation to the incident at Robert Oliver Drive, as he was suspected of being the culprit in the crime.

Sunday around 1:35 a.m., Deputy Mike Boyd was transporting a prisoner and saw a fight on South Central Avenue near Slim’s Game Room. He stopped and when he did, the crowd ran away. A Tifton woman who was at the scene was injured, however.

The woman said that while she tried to break up the fight, something had cut her across her back. The cut, which was on her lower back, was caused by an unknown object and she did not know who had cut her. The incident was listed as an aggravated assault.

A Tifton man reported to the Sheriff’s Office that while he was driving on South Central Avenue around 2 a.m. Sunday, someone threw something at him. The hard object hit him in the head and he never saw where it came from. The victim said he did not wish to prosecute at the time he made the report, but it was listed as an aggravated assault.

Sunday around 3:30 a.m., another Tifton woman was victim of an aggravated assault, this one a shooting. She told the Sheriff’s Office that while she was parked in her car on Highway 82 East at Goff Street, someone pulled up beside her.

Then, someone in the car next to her suddenly fired a gun at her car. One of the bullets grazed the victim’s back, but she was otherwise unharmed.

An investigation into the shooting is ongoing.

Finally, another Tifton woman told the Sheriff’s Office that two men with a gun broke into her home and stole $300 in cash around 9:15 p.m. Sunday. The victim described two black males who forced their way into her house. She told deputies that the burglars also hit a Tifton man who was at the house in the head with the gun.

An investigation in the case, which has been listed as an armed robbery, is ongoing.