Updated at 12:11 p.m.
WANTED MAN FOUND UP A TREE
• A police pursuit out of Centralia yesterday morning ended just north of the Scatter Creek Rest Area in south Thurston County and the driver subsequently tracked by a police dog was found hiding in a tree. It started with a call about car prowlers seen in the parking lot behind business on the 700 block of Harrison Avenue just after 8 a.m., according to police. A Centralia officer spotted the suspect vehicle northbound on Interstate 5 near the county line but the tan Chevrolet Blazer continued, until it left the freeway traveling through a grassy area, coming to a stop at a fence several hundred feet away, Officer Buddy Croy said. Two occupants fled on foot on foot, but Officer Corey Butcher caught the woman right away, according to police. A Thurston County K9 found the driver within about about an hour up a tree in the area, Croy said. Cordis E. McBride, 27, was arrested for eluding a police vehicle. He was also booked for a felony warrant for second-degree theft, out of Jefferson County. Tessie R. Taylor, 21, was arrested for a warrant for drug possession. Both are from Port Hadlock. Both were booked into the Lewis County Jail.
NEIGHBOR BLAMED FOR THEFT OF FIREARMS
• Detectives yesterday following up a previous burglary at Senn Road east of Chehalis arrested Jeff C. Plancich, 33, of Chehalis. Plancich said he was attempting to help his neighbor get back stolen property, but deputies concluded he was involved in the theft, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office. He was booked for unlawful possession of firearms and burglary. Three stolen firearms were recovered, Chief Civil Deputy Stacy Brown said.
CAMERA CAPTURES CRIME AT SCHOOL
• Police took a report about 11 a.m. yesterday at Centralia High School on Eshom Road about an attempt to steal a school vehicle. Surveillance cameras captured an image of a suspect, according to the Centralia Police Department.
GARAGE BURGLED
• A golf bag and clubs were reported stolen from a garage on the 500 block of Hamilton Avenue in Centralia yesterday morning.
ONE WANTED, THREE ARRESTED
• Three people were arrested yesterday on Loop Road east of Centralia when several deputies and police officers met to pick up an individual wanted on a warrant just before 12:30 p.m. They were looking for a 37-year-old Centralia man, John T. Malantich Jr., wanted by Department of Corrections officers, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office. They arrested a woman in a single-wide trailer who yelled at them and suggested she hadn’t seen him since earlier that morning, according to Chief Civil Deputy Brown. Then, after a 64-year-old man came running at a deputy and shoved him in the shoulder, they arrested him, Brown said. Mark A. Griffith, 64, was arrested for third-degree assault and after he threatened to track down and kill the deputy when he got out of jail, he was also arrested for felony harassment, according to Brown. As a deputy was cuffing Griffith, the wanted man rushed up behind the deputy, refused orders to get on the ground, so a Taser was used on him, she said. The wanted man was booked for his warrant and resisting arrest. Virginia Nall, 47, was booked for third-degree rendering criminal assistance.
TALKING TO A LAMP POST
• Chehalis police were called about 3:30 p.m. yesterday to Penny Playground by a grandmother who said there was a woman there throwing things around and seemed to be “whacked out on drugs.” The 37-year-old woman had been shadow boxing and talking to a lamp pole, believing the post was part of a car accident her mother had been in, Sgt. Gwen Carrell said. Carrell said. She was apparently suffering some type of psychosis, according to Carrell. An officer took the woman to Providence Centralia Hospital, so a mental health professional could evaluate her and try to get her some help, Carrell said. The sergeant said officers in Chehalis get called about once a week for individuals with mental health issues, sometimes even for the same person several times in a week. “It can be very scary to other people,” she said. It happens more in Chehalis than any other city she has worked in, Carrell said, perhaps because in the past here so very many people used to use methamphetamine.
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter
“It happens more in Chehalis than any other city she has worked in, Carrell said, perhaps because in the past here so very many people used to use methamphetamine.”
Call me naive, but that might be jumping to conclusions.