Anthony Roy Adams

Chattooga County, Ga., sheriff's deputies say an Alabama man was hanging around in a Walmart women's restroom during last week's holiday sales rush.

According to an arrest report, Anthony Roy Adams walked into the bathroom at the front of the Trion store at 13427 Highway 27 around 10 p.m. on Thanksgiving -- also known to shoppers as Gray Thursday (before Black Friday).

Adams, 41, of Henagar, Ala., leaned against a wall in the women's room and pressed a cellphone against his left ear, according to an arrest report. He later told officers he was trying to make a phone call.

Deputy Christopher Clark said Adams smelled like alcohol. Adams told him he knew the sheriff "here" in Ringgold, Ga., according to an arrest report. He then was informed that he was in the wrong town, and the wrong county.

Ringgold is in Catoosa County, where Gary Sisk is the sheriff. Mark Schrader is the sheriff in Chattooga County.

According to the arrest report, Adams had trouble standing up, and a breath test revealed he had a blood-alcohol content level of 0.197.

The Chattooga County Sheriff's Office booked Adams on a charge of public drunkenness. Adams said he bonded out the next day after paying $135.

Adams gives a different version of events. He said he went to the Walmart with a friend who wanted to do some early Christmas shopping. Adams waited in his friend's car and drank a six-pack of Natural Ice.

After sitting in the car for about an hour, Adams said, he got cold.

He went inside to find his friend. Then he started walking around the store, looking at some of the sales.

When he walked outside, he couldn't remember where the car -- a white Buick -- was parked. He walked around for a while, and eventually a deputy stopped and arrested him.

Despite being drunk that night, Adams said Friday he remembers what happened. He never went in the restroom, he said. At least, he doesn't think he did.

"If I even went in the women's bathroom," he said, "it's because I was in the wrong bathroom."

Contact staff writer Tyler Jett at 423-757-6476 or tjett@times freepress.com.