Pelion couple damages police cars during arrest

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A Pelion woman allegedly slipped out of her handcuffs, disabled a police car’s blue lights, destroyed its radio and radar systems and used the bathroom on the floor board during an arrest earlier this week.

Regina Lee Watts, 48, and a male companion had been detained for allegedly stealing a cell phone and a cigarette lighter from a car parked outside a convenience store. Watts and the man, Thomas James Burke, 46, of Pelion, told police they had been drinking, according to a report from the Pelion Police Department. Watts also told police she had taken Valium.

Burke allegedly kicked a window out of one police car, the report said. While officers were trying to get him under control, Watts took off her handcuffs and hid them in her pants, according to a Lexington County Sheriff’s Department report.

Watts allegedly pulled wires out of the blue lights and bent the radio and radar antennas, the report said. She also allegedly defecated and urinated on the floorboard, the report said.

The two were in the Lexington County Detention Center on charges of theft from a motor vehicle, destruction of property and disorderly conduct.

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