Milledgeville woman injured, SUV stolen

Published 2:33 pm Thursday, July 31, 2025

A Milledgeville woman who gave a man a ride home from a party last week was injured and had her SUV stolen. 

At last report, authorities were still searching for the man who reportedly committed the crimes.

Deputies with the Baldwin County Sheriff’s Office used GPS tracking on the victim’s cellphone to track the woman’s the stolen gray 2015 Ford Explorer.

The SUV was found abandoned at the Baldwin County Fire Rescue Station No. 4 on the 200 block of Coopers Road, according to an incident report filed by Deputy Nicolas Sides.

The deputy said he was dispatched by a E-911 dispatcher to the 100 block of McCullar Weaver Road in reference to the theft of a motor vehicle.

Sides spoke to the victim. 

The 46-year-old victim told the deputy she was at a party in Milledgeville when a man, whom she identified by name, asked her for a ride home. She agreed to take him home.

Sides said the woman informed him that while taking the man home, they got into an argument and she subsequently stopped her vehicle in front of a dwelling on the 100 block of McCullar Weaver Road.

The deputy said the woman asked the man to get out of her vehicle, but the man refused.

The woman said the man became aggressive and began hitting her, according to the incident report.

“I observed a large contusion on (the woman’s) head, which was bleeding,” Sides said, noting the victim also had a lip injury.

While vehicle was stopped, the man got out and walked over to her side.

Sides said the woman told him that the man opened the driver’s side door and pulled her out of the SUV. He reportedly pushed the woman to the ground then got into the SUV and drove away. He last was seen traveling south on McCullar Weaver Road.

The deputy said he saw abrasions on the woman’s knees and one of her elbows.

Sides said the woman told him that her phone was in the SUV and that her daughter’s phone could track its location. Using her daughter’s phone, Deputy Thomas Coley drove to the fire department on Coopers Road where he found the SUV, but no sign of the man who stole it.

Warrants charging the man with battery and motor vehicle hijacking in the second degree have since been secured by Sides.

As of Friday, the man still had not been arrested.

Anyone with information related to the crimes should call the Baldwin County Sheriff’s Office Crime Tip Line at 478-445-5102.