Three arrested
Narcotics found in stolen car
By Elizabeth Billips Associate Editor

When police saw a small child in a woman's lap instead of a car seat, they planned on writing a ticket - but that was before they discovered the car was stolen and had a suspected drug dealer inside.

According to a report filed at the Waynesboro Police Department, officers pulled over Hephzibah resident Eura Watkins, 47, as she drove down East Eighth Street Thursday morning.

When the reporting officer called in her Mazda's tag number, it came back stolen out of Bibb County.

Although the driver and passengers maintained the Mazda was a rental, they couldn't provide any documentation.

When officers searched the passengers, they found a pill bottle in the waistband of Donald Ray Smith, 33, of Hephzibah, which contained seven grams of crack cocaine. They also found a crack pipe in the trunk.

Smith was arrested for possession of crack cocaine with the intent to distribute while Watkins was arrested for theft by receiving stolen property and violation of Georgia's child restraint law.

According to investigator Claude Wade, officers later learned that the car had reportedly been stolen by 22-year-old Shalandra Scott of Warner Robins.

Scott had been a passenger in the car but had provided police with a false identity and was allowed to leave.

When she returned to Waynesboro the next day to bail the others out of jail, she was arrested for theft by taking (motor vehicle).