VOLUNTEER FIREFIGHTER PUNCHED WHEN TRYING TO ROUSE UNRESPONSIVE PATIENT
• A 25-year-old Chehalis man who said he must have pulled his motorcycle off the road and fallen asleep near the 300 block of Ingalls Road west of Centralia was arrested after a responding firefighter tried to check on him and he allegedly punched the volunteer firefighter in the chin. Riverside Fire Authority called about 9:40 p.m. last Sunday found a man laying on the ground with a motorcycle parked nearby, according to the sheriff’s office. David R. Little smelled of alcohol and when Firefighter Wade Snow went to roll him over, he opened his eyes, looked at the firefighter and punched him in the face, according to an incident report from the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office. Little was arrested and charged with third-degree assault. He pleaded not guilty on Thursday in Lewis County Superior Court.
LOCAL FIREFIGHTERS HELPING IN EASTERN WASH. WILDFIRE
• The Rochester-area fire department sent three fire department vehicles and six people to help battle a grasslands fire that covered three-square miles and was threatening 80 structures last night in Klickitat County. The team from West Thurston Regional Fire Authority left Thursday evening, according to fire Lt. Eric Smith. The fire near the town of Lyle along the Columbia River started on Thursday and was 40 percent contained last night, according to the Northwest Interagency Coordination Center.
OUTLET MALL STORE HEIST
• Two teenage males reportedly fled from one of the Centralia Outlet Mall stores with three mesh bags full of merchandise and got into tan-colored van with Arkansas license plates last night. Police called about 8:15 p.m. to the business on the 100 block of High Street noted it was a Chevrolet Astro van and was not found.
PURSE LIFTED FROM SHOPPING CART IN CENTRALIA
• Centralia police were called Friday afternoon to the 100 block of High Street where somebody had stolen a purse from a customer’s shopping cart and soon afterward used used one of the credit cards at a nearby convenience store.
WANDERING NAKED TODDLER REMOVED FROM HOME, PARENTS ARRESTED
• Police called after a toddler was found wandering alone and naked on a Centralia sidewalk arrested a couple for criminal mistreatment when they finally found the parents at the boy’s home a block or so away on Wednesday. When officers finally got someone to come to the door at the 900 block of B Street, they discovered a residence so “foul” and unsafe, the little boy was taken into protective custody, according to the Centralia Police Department. Sgt. Kurt Reichert said there were knives within reach of the boy on the kitchen table and dozens of uninflated balloons laying on the floor, along with feces embedded in the carpet and urine on the kitchen floor. Kacey J. Ganas, 28, and Jared C. Penfield, 25, were booked into the Lewis County Jail.
TEEN BOOKED FOR SECOND-DEGREE ASSAULT
• A 15-year-old boy was arrested for second-degree assault after allegedly swinging the power head of a vacuum cleaner at his mother’s head in Centralia on Wednesday afternoon, according to the Centralia Police Department.
HEROIN ARREST
• A 34-year-old Centralia man was arrested on Saturday for possession of heroin. Police contacted Michael J. Pae just before 1 p.m. at the 900 block of L Street in Centralia and booked him into the Lewis County Jail, according to the Centralia Police Department.
YIKES, HE DID IT AGAIN?
• An officer was called Saturday afternoon to the 700 block of Harrison Avenue in Centralia where they cited a 49-year-old Centralia man after he exposed himself during a verbal dispute, according to the Centralia Police Department. The same individual was arrested for the same violation a little more than a week earlier during an argument over a property line between two businesses, according to police. He had allegedly made a rude suggestion which he emphasized by presenting a body part usually kept inside the trousers in public.
STOLEN STUFF
• Chehalis police took a report somebody burglarized a residence and took video games and electronics on Friday. An officer called to the apartment on the 500 block of Jefferson Avenue was told the break-in occurred sometime between 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. the day before.
• Centralia police were called Thursday afternoon about the theft of a TV from a home on the 1100 block of Woodland Avenue.
• A green 1999 Toyota Sienna van was reported stolen in Chehalis on Thursday morning.
• Chehalis police were called to Northeast Washington Avenue on Wednesday evening about the theft of a debit card.
• Chehalis police took a report of a burglary to a business on Northeast Median Street on Tuesday afternoon.
SMASHING WINDSHIELDS, SPRAY PAINTING VEHICLES
• Police were called to three incidents of vandalism to vehicles in Centralia on Friday, including one on the 800 block of Park Way in which somebody spray painted a car overnight. One was on the 700 block of North Washington Avenue and another on the 1000 block of Eckerson Road. The day before, an officer took a report of a windshield being broken out of a vehicle on the 100 block of North Buckner Street.
BAIL STAYS AT $500,000 FOR MUFFLER MAN
• The 65-year-old owner of a Centralia muffler shop pleaded not guilty to charges of three times selling methamphetamine to a police informant when he appeared in court on Thursday. Frank Eugene Willis was arrested Aug. 19 at his Muffler Hut on the 1400 block of South Gold Street when police searched the property for stolen property following an ongoing investigation by the Centralia Police Department. Willis also pleaded not guilty to possession of roughly one ounce of the drug which was found in various places, possession of a stolen vehicle and of a stolen firearm, according to authorities. Deputy Prosecutor Sara Beigh said a detective was still checking the roughly other 40 firearms seized to see any of them were stolen. The apartment on the premises in which he lived with his wife has been posted as uninhabitable by the city, according to Beigh. Willis’s temporary defense attorney had argued for less than $500,000 bail, saying Willis had as strong of community ties as one can find, but Judge Nelson Hunt on Thursday declined to reduce the bail.
Muffler shop owner Frank Eugene Willis consults with his attorney during his first appearance in court on Aug. 20 after being arrested for allegedly selling methamphetamine to a police informant.
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter