Lewis County Sirens.com

TEEN MOTORIST OUTRUNS DEPUTIES FOR MORE THAN HALF AN HOUR, THEN WRECKS

• A 16-year-old driver is in the hospital this morning after a police chase that began in Pierce County and continued for another 30 minutes through Thurston County and ended with the late model Ford Escort on its side in a field off Tilley Road, according to the Thurston County Sheriff’s Office. Sheriff’s Lt. Chris Mealy said he didn’t know why the Olympia resident was being pursued by a Pierce County sheriff’s deputy but but two Thurston deputies caught up to him in Yelm about 3:30 yesterday morning. The teenage driver reached speeds of 95 mph although he slowed to about 60 mph in Tenino, according to Mealy. He drove with no lights on, sometimes on the wrong side of the road and at one point nearly rear-ended a flat-bed tow truck, Mealy said. He avoided spike strips on Old 99 and jumped on Interstate 5 northbound up to the Maytown exit, Mealy said. A Thurston deputy on Tilley Road performed what Mealy called a “technical vehicle intervention” which spun the Escort off the road and into the field. The teen was ordered out of the car and taken by ambulance to Providence St. Peter Hospital in Olympia. The driver, whose name was not released because he is a juvenile, was arrested for eluding, Mealy said. The lieutenant said he didn’t know details about the teen’s injuries.

GRASS BURNS

• Firefighters in Winlock extinguished a grass fire yesterday afternoon along Kakela Road east of town that had grown to about 200 feet by 50 feet. Lewis County Fire District 15 Lt. Kevin Anderson said they suspected a cigarette may have ignited it but could not find an offending butt.

MAN DEMANDS MILLIONS FROM LAYWER

• A 48-year-old man was arrested at the Motel 6 in Centralia yesterday after he reportedly called 911 and made threats to kill a local attorney, according to the Centralia Police Department. It happened about 6:30 p.m. at the 1300 block of Belmont Avenue. Police Sgt. Kurt Reichert said Steve Fullerton, of Morton, called the lawyer a “jack-booted Nazi pig” and said he needed millions of dollars a day for his pain and suffering from the lawyer or he would kill him. Fullerton was booked into the Lewis County Jail for felony harassment. The identity of the attorney was not disclosed.

WANTED SUBJECT HIDES ON PORCH

• After a police officer during a traffic stop in Centralia yesterday recognized a passenger with an outstanding warrant, the passenger fled on foot but was found a short time later hiding on a porch, according to the Centralia Police Department. It happened around 2:25 p.m. near the 900 block of Marion Street. Richard R. Dahl, 26, of Centralia, was arrested and booked into the Lewis County Jail, according to police.

CUTTING AND BREAKING LOCKS

• Somebody stole a red and black Honda generator after they cut the padlock on a shed on the 13,400 block of Tilley Road South outside Tenino, according to a report made to the Thurston County Sheriff’s Office yesterday. The victim told a deputy it must have happened while she was away between June 22 and July 7, the sheriff’s office said this morning. The loss was estimated at $3,500.

• The sheriff’s office took a report yesterday that a laptop was missing after a Rochester business was burglarized. Somebody broke through a deadbolt lock at “Uncle Howard’s” on the 18,200 block of Pendleton Street Southwest sometime between the evening of July 13 and the morning of July 20, according to sheriff’s Lt. Chris Mealy. Computer, tools and other items of value were left behind, Mealy said.

• Somebody cut a chain to get inside a Department of Fish and Wildlife barn on the 17,900 block of Guava Street in Rochester and took a weed trimmer, the Thurston County Sheriff’s Office reported today. The report made yesterday noted it occurred sometime between 8 p.m. on July 13 and 9 a.m. on July 20.

• Centralia police reported yesterday forced entry was made to a residence on the 1000 block of Elm Street. Tools were taken in the theft that was reported to police Tuesday morning.

OPIUM POPPIES SEIZED

• The Olympian reported yesterday the Tenino Police Department found a variety of natural and made made drugs – including 52 opium poppies – when it served a search warrant at a local residence. Read news reporter Jeremy Pawloski’s story here.

GOOD DATE GOES BAD

• A 44-year-old Rochester man spent yesterday running errands and shopping with a woman he’d met the night before at the Red Barn in Grand Mound only to discover after they split up at the mall for awhile in the afternoon, she apparently burglarized his house, the Thurston County Sheriff’s Office reported this morning. Lynne M. Vanier, 43, of Rochester was arrested yesterday evening, according to sheriff’s Lt. Chris Mealy. The victim told a deputy they’d hit it off immediately when they met and spent Sunday evening and Monday together, Mealy said. They were at the Capitol Mall in West Olympia about 4 p.m. yesterday when she said she going to run over to a friends house nearby and would be right back; he should wait for her in the Best Buy store, Mealy said. While he was waiting, he got a phone call from a friend who said a neighbor had seen the woman leaving his house on the 19,400 block of Pecan Street Southwest, according to Mealy. He arrived home to find pry marks on the front door and missing was $280 cash, as well as most the contents of prescription medications Xanax and tramdol, according to Mealy. “The bottom line is, she’s arrested for residential burglary and she’s sitting in jail,” he said.

MAN PICTURED IN GAME CAM PHOTO ARRESTED, SHERIFF’S OFFICE SAYS

• A 25-year-old Rochester resident reportedly bragged to a friend the “cops won’t be able to catch him” after a news article appeared in The Chronicle last month featuring a photo captured by a so-called game cam of an intruder into a Chehalis business. The Tukwila Police Department contacted the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office yesterday morning to say they had arrested the man after his friend tipped them off, sheriff’s Cmdr. Steve Aust said this morning. Detectives yesterday picked up Lance H. Gauthun, 25, and booked him into the Lewis County Jail, Aust said. The owner of Ramsey Co. on Hamilton Road had set up his camera which uses infra-red technology and a motion sensor – usually for scoping out good places to hunt – in his shop after a series of thefts of pieces from his trucks and other equipment. Aust said detectives had other evidence linking Gauthun to the break-in. He was booked for first-degree theft, second-degree burglary and trafficking in stolen property, according to Aust.

MOTORIST MOWS OVER SIGN ON DOWNTOWN SIDEWALK

• Witnesses said he was driving too fast before he drove up onto the sidewalk on the right hand side of the street in downtown Chehalis last night, shearing a no-parking sign off at the ground and damaging his vehicle on the driver’s side front corner, the Chehalis Police Department said this morning about a 19-year-old motorist. It happened about 9:15 p.m. last night along Northwest Pacific Avenue, just before Chehalis Avenue. The vehicle came very close to the building there, but didn’t hit it, although he ended up with a broken windshield, detective Sgt. Rick McNamara said. Nathan S. Page, 19, of Centralia, was later arrested with a criminal citation for reckless driving and hit and run, according to McNamara.

DIFFERENT KIND OF GAS DRIVE OFF

• Centralia firefighters kept busy for about two hours last night helping clean up after a woman drove away from a gas pump with the nozzle still attached. Riverside Fire Authority was summoned about 6 p.m. to the I-5 Freeway Mart on Harrison Avenue at View Street. It wasn’t a large fuel spill, but firefighters had to create a dike and call out the Department of Ecology and someone from the city’s storm water department to make sure none got into the sewer system, fire Capt. Erik Olson said this morning. A commercial cleanup service was able to use a vacuum to suck the fuel and water mix from a catch basin, he said.

MORE THEFTS

• A Lewis County sheriff’s deputy took a report yesterday of the theft of approximately 400 feet of copper wire and a six-wheeled Polaris ATV. Sometime between noon on Sunday and 7 a.m. yesterday, somebody cut through a fence to get to the items on the 1100 block of Highway 603 outside Napavine, according to the sheriff’s office.

• Centralia police reported yesterday they took a report of a burglary  to a residence on the 100 block of Aurora Street. Police, called to the home on Sunday, noted “various items” were missing and that the investigation is ongoing.

• Police were called about 2:30 p.m. yesterday to a vehicle prowl on the 1000 block of West Chestnut Street. Missing were a GPS device, a digital camera and an Amazon Kindle, according to the Centralia Police Department.

CENTRALIA ARREST INCLUDES GROUND FIGHT, TASER, BATON AND TWO INJURED

• An attempt to arrest a man last night in Centralia ended with both the 36-year-old man and a police officer going to the hospital. Centralia police responded to a call about a man running back and forth across the train tracks and diving into the bushes in the late evening near the 500 block of South Tower Avenue, according to the Centralia Police Department. The individual, Harvey Maddux, is somebody with a long history of mental instability and drug abuse, and officers get several calls each month because of his erratic behavior and things he’s done, according to Centralia police Officer Chris Fitzgerald. As one officer attempted to handcuff him, Maddux charged another, Officer Ruben Ramirez and struck Ramirez with his fist, according to Fitzgerald. An officer deployed a Taser and Maddux “defeated” the Taser, she said, without elaborating. He was impervious to the Taser, she said. The ensuing struggle involved a ground fight, she said. Officer Phillip Reynolds delivered several blows with his baton to the suspect’s arms, back and “I think he got caught on the head,” Fitzgerald said. One of Reynolds’ baton strikes got Officer Deric Makein the hand as well, she said. Both went to Providence Centralia Hospital where she believed Maddux got some stitches in his head; and Makein’s hand was X-rayed to see if it was broken, according to Fitzgerald. It wasn’t. Maddux, 36, whose hometown was not noted, was arrested and booked into the Lewis County Jail for third-degree assault, according to Centralia police.

SUSPECTED THIEF ANSWERS TEXT MESSAGE ON STOLEN CELL PHONE

• A woman exchanged text messages with a suspected thief after her purse containing bank cards and her cell phone were stolen from her vehicle on Saturday night in Centralia leading to an arrest and the recovery of her belongings, according to the Centralia Police Department. An officer took a report about 10:20 p.m. about the car prowl and three hours later learned the victim texted her phone and got messages back, according to police. The 15-year-old male – whose name was not released because he’s a juvenile – allegedly worked out a deal to return the woman’s items if she paid him money, an amount police did not disclose. Officers coordinated with the woman to make the exchange and the suspect was taken into custody, following a short pursuit, according to police. The teenager was then booked into the Lewis County Juvenile Detention Center for trafficking stolen property, according to police.

SUSPECT CAUGHT IN CLOSET OF SOMEBODY ELSE’S APARTMENT

• Centralia police responded to a call about a burglary on Friday evening on the 400 block of South Cedar Street and discovered somebody had been going through a crawl space in the attic and breaking through fire walls to burglarize apartments, according to the Centralia Police Department. Twenty-nine year old Rachel L. Grider, of Centralia, was found hiding in a closet of one apartment and booked for second-degree burglary into the Lewis County Jail, according to police.

ONALASKA RESIDENT PURSUES BURGLARY SUSPECTS

• The Lewis County Sheriff’s Office took a call on Saturday afternoon about a burglary to an Onalaska-area home and before they could arrive, were called again and told one of the victims was behind the suspect’s vehicle. Deputies and troopers caught up to the suspect’s broken down vehicle on U.S. Highway 12 in Silver Creek and arrested the pair, sheriff’s Cmdr. Steve Aust said this morning. The victim was able to identify their valuables – including items such as jewelry, a pellet gun, a laptop computer and electronic movies and games adding up to about $2,700 in value – missing from the home on the 100 block of Harvest Moon Drive, Aust said. Booked into the Lewis County Jail for residential burglary and second-degree theft were Michael A. Boyer, 27 and Danielle M. Brown, 33, according to Aust. He described them as transients and noted Boyer had a fugitive from justice warrant out of Washington County, Ore. Aust said he wasn’t clear about how and where the victim began trailing the suspected burglars.

MORE THEFTS

• Centralia police took a report of a burglary on Friday afternoon connected with the 1200 block of Mellen Street in which approximately $600 was taken.

• Local police often respond to shoplifting incidents but don’t often describe in their morning summaries to the press what was taken. However, a Centralia police officer noted a female who fled an incident around 2 p.m. Friday at the 100 block of West High Street in Centralia got away with black, tan and lace argyle-patterned matching bra and panties.

• Chehalis police were called about 6:40 p.m. on Saturday about the theft of a blue 1992 Honda.

OTHER STUFF

• Centralia police were called about 12:20 a.m. on Saturday to the 600 block of West Main Street where somebody had slashed tires and “keyed” a vehicle.

• Chehalis police were called about 11 a.m. on Saturday to a report a vehicle ran into a building on the 300 block of South Market Boulevard. Further details weren’t readily available.

HAY TRUCK BURNS UP NEXT TO CHEHALIS BARN

• A fire broke out in a truck loaded with hay just as it pulled in next to a barn to unload yesterday morning west of Chehalis. The engine and cab of the 1979 International flatbed were fully engulfed in flames when firefighters arrived after the 10:37 a.m. call to the end of Peterson Road, off of Highway 603, according to Lewis County District 6 Chief Bud Goodwillie. The two occupants escaped uninjured but the truck was a total loss, Goodwillie said. He estimated about half the hay was salvageable.

MINORS ARRESTED FOR DRINKING

• Three teenagers were arrested just after 2 o’clock this morning after a Chehalis police officer contacted them in a vehicle and discerned they had been drinking alcohol. The trio was arrested for “minor appearing after consuming alcohol” and then released after the stop on Northeast Cascade Avenue, according to Chehalis Police Department Deputy Chief Randy Kaut. Their names were not released, but they included 15-year-old male from Chehalis, a 17-year-old female from Centralia and a 17-year-old female from Olympia, Kaut said. A fourth occupant of the vehicle was not cited, he said.

ARRESTS IN CENTRALIA

• Just after 4 o’clock this morning, police arrested Jesse R. Baxter, 20, of Centralia, for second-degree possession of stolen property, possession of methamphetamine and and outstanding felony warrant, according to the Centralia Police Department. He was booked into the Lewis County Jail after the contact on the 400 block of South Silver Street.

• James K. Hayes, 56, of Centralia, was arrested and booked for possession of methamphetamine following an approximately 2:30 a.m. today contact with police on the 800 block of B Street in Centralia, according to the Centralia Police Department.

• Kimberly A. Mott, 54, a homeless person, was arrested about 2:30 p.m. yesterday at the 600 block of South Tower Avenue for disorderly conduct and a felony warrant, according to the  Centralia Police Department.

DOORS TRASHED

• The Thurston County Sheriff’ Office took a report yesterday somebody had gone inside a home on the 9700 block of 173rd Avenue Southwest in Rochester and damaged three doors and broke a window. They also pried open the door to an RV and broke into a shed, according to sheriff’s Lt. Chris Mealy. It happened while the occupant was way, sometime between June 23 and 30, he said. Nothing appeared to be missing, Mealy said.

MORE THEFTS

• Somebody stole a pressure washer and a “GIant” brand bicycle totaling about $1,200 when they broke into a shed on the 21,600 block of Oregon Trail Way in the Centralia area, the Thurston County Sheriff’s Office reported this morning. The victim reported it Monday, but it occurred sometime between June 1 and 30, according to sheriff’s Lt. Chris Mealy.

• Somebody entered a fenced area at Martin Sand and Gravel in Rochester and removed a commercial grade battery off a loader, the Thurston County Sheriff’ Office said this morning. The theft at the 6500 block of 196th Avenue Southwest occurred sometime over the weekend ending this past Monday, according to sheriff’s Lt. Chris Mealy.

• Centralia police took four reports yesterday of vehicle prowls. They happened on the 400 block of West Magnolia Street, the 600 block of E Street, the 300 block of North Iron Street and the 300 block of North Rock Street, according to police. Among the items taken in the various thefts were school supplies, cleaning supplies, binoculars, sunglasses and stereo equipment, according to the Centralia Police Department.

POLICE FIND STOLEN VEHICLE

• Police arrested an 18-year-old Centralia resident last night when she was stopped for driving a stolen vehicle. Natalie E. Sanchez Anderson was booked into the Lewis County Jail for first-degree possession of stolen property after the approximately 8 p.m. contact at Belmont Avenue and Earl Street in Centralia, according to the Centralia Police Department. She also was cited for having no driver’s license and had an outstanding warrant, according to police.

MORE CAR PROWLS

• Just before 6 o’clock this morning, an officer took a report of a vehicle prowl on the 200 block of West Magnolia Street in Centralia. A DVD player and several DVD movies, along with several packs of cigarettes were taken, according to Centralia police.

• Police were called about 10:20 a.m. yesterday to the 200 block of Tilley Avenue in Centralia for a car prowl. Paperwork was scattered throughout the vehicle, but nothing appeared to be missing, according to the Centralia Police Department.

• Prescription medication and a GPS device were reported stolen yesterday from a vehicle on the 1100 block of F Street in Centralia, according to police.

A John Deere 550 after it burned on Sunday night at a chicken farm along Shanklin Road

FORMER EMPLOYEE SETS FIRE TO TRACTOR, SHERIFF’S OFFICE SAYS

• A 20-year-old Onalaska resident was arrested yesterday for allegedly torching a tractor on his former employer’s farm Sunday night. The John Deere 550 parked at the chicken farm along Shanklin Road southeast of Onalaska was destroyed, amounting to an estimated $20,000 loss, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office. The owner had let the employee go recently, according to sheriff’s Cmdr. Steve Aust. When he reviewed video security tapes on Monday, the owner recognized a truck as belonging to Bradley K. Storie, Aust said. “You see the truck pull in, you see the glow off the barn and then the truck leaves,” Aust said. Storie, and a 15-year-old suspected accomplice from Onalaska, were both booked for second-degree arson, according to Aust. No other damage was reported.

ALARM SCARES INTRUDER OFF

• Centralia police responded about 1 o’clock this morning to a possible burglary at a business on the 1300 block of South Gold Street. Police reported they believe the doors were left unlocked at the un-named business and and individual entered, set off the alarm and then fled.

FUNNY MONEY DOESN’T GET PAST CLERK

• Chehalis police conducted a search of a vehicle yesterday looking for counterfeit money following the arrest of a man who allegedly tried to pass a fake $100 bill at Wal-Mart on Sunday. Jeremy L. Keith, 31, of Elma, was arrested and booked on Sunday night after a call from the Louisiana Avenue retailer, according to detective Sgt. Rick McNamara. No other fake bills were found yesterday. McNamara said.

DRUG ARREST

• Chehalis police made a traffic stop early yesterday morning and subsequently found a small amount of suspected methamphetamine, leading to the arrest of Tamie McCrandall, 40 of Winlock, according to detective Sgt. Rick McNamara.. She was booked into the Lewis County Jail for possession of methamphetamine.

ANOTHER HONDA MISSING

• Centralia police reported this morning they were called yesterday to the 600 block of South Tower Avenue about a blue Honda Civic stolen sometime in the previous 12 days. Its license plate should read 153 TLK.

MORE VEHICLE PROWLS

• A call to the 1200 block of South Tower Avenue in Centralia about 3 p.m. yesterday revealed a purse was taken from an unlocked vehicle, according to the Centralia Police Department.

• An MP3 player and keys were stolen from a vehicle on the 700 block of Euclid Way in Centralia, according to a report made to police about 9:40 a.m. yesterday.

• Somebody broke a window to get inside a car an steal a speaker on the 500 block of North Rock Street in Centralia sometime before about 9:25 a.m. yesterday, according to police.