A rather extreme case of the munchies landed a drunken Atlanta-area man in jail Tuesday on suspicion of walking into a 78-year-old Tybee Island resident’s house to raid the fridge.
Police say Justin Carrol Committe, 32, of Alpharetta was charged with felony burglary and public drunkenness about 3:20 a.m. after being identified as the kitchen-pilfering tourist.
The 78-year-old homeowner told police he woke up about 2:50 a.m. and found a clearly intoxicated stranger hanging out in his kitchen with food taken out of the refrigerator.
The homeowner said nothing appeared to be broken or missing, according to a Tybee police report. The door to the 13th Street house had apparently been left unlocked, and the man told police he only woke up in the first place because someone turned on the ceiling fan in his bedroom.
Police broadcast a description of the shorts-wearing suspect and soon found him outside the SandCastle Inn on Butler Avenue. The homeowner rode with a police officer to the hotel and promptly identified Committe as the man he’d seen in his kitchen minutes earlier.
Police, it turned out, had already run into Committe that day.
Officer Richard Dascall spoke with Committe earlier in the evening after a Rock House Original Bar & Grill staffer told police the Fulton County man was “extremely intoxicated” and trying to buy drugs from customers.
Police sent Committe back to his hotel in a taxi after the Rock House call, but they took him to the Chatham County jail after the kitchen incident.
He remained there Tuesday evening without bond. It wasn’t immediately clear if he had an attorney.
Tybee police say Tuesday morning was not the first time they’ve had issues with drunken burglaries.