While in her estranged husband’s house, Sandra Joyner Berry helped herself to a bottle in a cabinet marked “Apple Cinnamon.”

Berry, 59, of Appling about 20 miles outside of Augusta, assumed it was leftover moonshine.

But when Neil Berry returned home, he told his wife it wasn’t moonshine at all. It was air freshener, the kind he used in his car. A dizzy Sandra Berry sat down at the kitchen table, according to a July 6 Columbia County Sheriff’s Office report.

“Mr. Berry stated he began researching the effects of drinking air freshener when he saw Mrs. Sandra Berry fall out of her chair,” the report states.

Neil Berry called police, helped his wife to the car and drove her to meet deputies at a local Publix. When a deputy saw the woman slumped over in the backseat and having difficulty breathing, an ambulance was called to take Berry to the hospital, according to police.

The extent of the woman’s injuries was not known.

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Demonstrators protest President Donald Trump and Elon Musk on Presidents Day in front of the Capitol in Atlanta on Monday, February 17, 2025, as part of nationwide demonstrations organized by the 50501 movement. (Arvin Temkar / AJC)

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