Lewis County Sirens.com

Updated at 6:56 p.m.

SHOE BOX SCARE AT CENTRALIA CITY HALL

• Police shut down a portion of North Pearl Street in Centralia after a small box was discovered sitting on a sidewalk next to City Hall, specifically outside police department offices, at about 9 a.m. this morning. Bomb technicians from the Washington State Patrol were summoned, who X-rayed what Police Chief Bob Berg said he thought was a shoe box, finding it empty. Nobody was evacuated, but personnel moved to a different part of the building, Berg said. The chief said it was sitting atop an access grate. The street was reopened about 11:45 a.m.

FIREFIGHTERS EVACUATE CHEHALIS MOVIE THEATER

• Firefighters summoned last night about a smokey haze inside the movie theater in Chehalis searched the building and finally discovered the transformer that feeds a neon sign above the concession stand had shorted out. Employees suspected it was the popcorn machine and didn’t evacuate the building until after firefighters arrived, according to Chehalis Fire Department Capt. Rob Gebhart. The call to the Midway Cinemas on Northeast Hampe Way came about 8:30 p.m., he said. After a manager noticed the sign wasn’t illuminated, crews found the charred wiring, Gebhart said. Gebhart said workers asked movie-goers in each of the theaters to exit the building, and estimated some 50 customers waited outside for 10 to 15 minutes before they were allowed back in. Gebhart said it was odd in that the incident didn’t trip the circuit breaker, but an electrician was going to come out today.

REALLY? ON VOICE MAIL?

• A 27-year-old Winlock man was jailed on Friday after he allegedly left voice messages for his girlfriend of five years following their break up saying he would kill her and dispose of her body where it wouldn’t be found. Ross C. Lawrence was contacted and arrested for felony harassment, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office.

BUSTING IN TO THE MASONIC TEMPLE

• Chehalis police were called just after 7 a.m. yesterday when someone observed a subject break through the front door window of the Masonic temple on the 100 block of West Main Street. Arriving officers searched the building and found a trail of blood – presumably from a glass cut – leading out the back door, according to the Chehalis Police Department. Nothing was taken, detective Sgt. Gary Wilson said.

SNEAKING INTO GIRL’S HOUSE

• Police were called about 7 p.m. on Saturday when someone saw a subject crawl through an upstairs window at a neighbor’s home on the 600 block of Southwest Pacific Avenue in Chehalis. Officers caught a 15-year-old boy coming back out the window, police said. It was his former girlfriend’s house, nobody was home at the time and the teenager was booked into the Lewis County Juvenile Detention Center for burglary. Detective Sgt. Gary Wilson said he didn’t know what the teen was doing there.

GLENOMA BURGLARY

• A deputy was called about 1 p.m. on Saturday to the 7500 block of U.S. Highway 12 in Glenoma where someone had gone into a mostly empty residence and stole a blanket, pillows, a fishing vest, jumper cables and a Garth Brooks CD collection, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office.

COINS, CURRENCY MISSING FROM CENTRALIA HOME

• A 45-year-old Centralia man called the sheriff’s office to his home on the 1500 block of North Pearl Street in Centralia on Friday afternoon after discovering someone had got into his gun safe and stolen numerous collectible currency and coins, including a Kennedy half dollar. No forced entry was found into the residence or the safe, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office. The loss is estimated at $500.

DRUGS

• A 31-year-old Centralia man was arrested in Centralia on Friday in connection with an ongoing Chehalis Police Department investigation into alleged drug dealing. Joseph L. Nickols was booked into the Lewis County jail for delivery of drugs and also possession of a controlled substance because he had a patch of Fentanyl – a potent pain medication –  without a prescription, detective Sgt. Gary WIlson said.

ALLEGED VANDALS CAPTURED

• Centralia police arrested three teenage boys after they were caught spray painting graffiti on a business at the 1900 block of North Pearl Street in Centralia yesterday afternoon. Further details were not readily available.

GRILL TAMPERING

• Centralia police were called about 3:50 a.m. today to the 500 block of North Pearl Street where an unknown subject apparently had entered a fenced area, turned on the propane to someone’s gas grill and then left.

WRECK

• A 17-year-old Mossyrock girl escaped with minor injuries when  she lost control of her car on the 400 block of Salmon Creek Road, traveled down an embankment, impacted a tree and landed on its top on Friday night, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office. The girl said it happened about 9 p.m. and she walked home, according to the sheriff’s office. Her Ford Focus was totaled, Chief Civil Deputy Stacy Brown said. She was cited for wheels off the roadway and will likely be in trouble for driving with a suspended license, the sheriff’s office reported.

FROM THE COURTHOUSE

• The man who found himself shot when he confronted a resident inside an unlocked rural Chehalis home one night in February has pleaded guilty and apologized for what he did. Brian L. Creed, 51, was high on methamphetamine when he encountered an armed and just-awakened young man inside the manufactured home on the 400 block of Highway 603 west of Chehalis, according to authorities. Court documents say 24-year-old Joshua Norman ordered Creed out, but Creed charged him, Norman fired his 40 caliber handgun and then Creed tackled Norman on February 10. Norman held him at gunpoint until deputies arrived. Lewis County Deputy Prosecutor Shane O’Rourke said Norman and his wife didn’t attend Friday’s court hearing in Lewis County Superior Court, but Creed read aloud a statement in which he told them and the court he was sorry. He pleaded guilty to first-degree burglary, although O’Rourke indicated it still wasn’t exactly clear what Creed’s intentions were for entering a stranger’s home. Creed, who was shot in the abdomen and hospitalized for about 10 days, was sentenced to just shy of three years in prison. He was also sentenced to 90 days for a separate second-degree trespass. He has two past convictions for felony theft and two more for misdemeanor theft.

AND MORE

• And as usual, other incidents such as arrests for warrants; reports of shoplifting; responses for burglar alarms, suspicious circumstances, a high school student who was “verbal” to staff at the school; complaints of loud neighbors, a woman’s child’s grandparents harassing her on Facebook … and more.

Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter

This entry was posted on Monday, April 22nd, 2013 at 12:17 pm and is filed under Sharyn's sirens roundup. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.