MATTRESS CATCHES FIRE
• Riverside Fire Authority was called to a home on Wayne Drive around 10 o’clock this morning where residents were attempting to drag a burning mattress outside. Nobody was hurt, but it flared up and scorched a wall, Fire Capt. Erik Olson said. “It smoked up the house pretty well,” Olson said. Crews removed the smoke, and suspect the smoldering was related to smoking materials, according to Olson.
SNACK ATTACK
• A deputy was called about 6:30 a.m. yesterday to an espresso stand in the 100 block of Carlisle Avenue in Onalaska after a customer asked for the time and then grabbed a handful of candy bars, muffins and doughnut holes and left. A 17-year-old fitting a description of the subject was subsequently contacted in the 100 block of Central Avenue and arrested for third-degree theft and booked into the Lewis County Juvenile Detention Center, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office. The $22 worth of snacks were returned, Chief Civil Deputy Stacy Brown said.
THEFT OF MONEY
• Centralia police took a report about 9 a.m. yesterday from the the 1100 block of Borthwick Street regarding $1,700 missing cash from a home.
FRAUD AND TRICKERY
• Chehalis police were contacted yesterday by a woman who was notified by her bank that someone had created and used a check featuring her account number but a different name.
• Centralia police were contacted yesterday afternoon by an individual at the 1000 block of Belmont Avenue regarding the fraudulent use of their debit card in California.
• Centralia police took another report yesterday from someone whose social security number was was used by someone else to file a tax return.
• Chehalis police were contacted yesterday by a woman who said she received a threatening phone call from someone who said since she failed to file a tax return, they were going to send someone to her home. Detective Sgt. Gary WIlson said it was an attempt to coerce her into revealing personal information, probably so it could be used fraudulently. Wilson took the opportunity to remind folks if they are contacted by someone asking for such information, never, ever give it out. The Associated Press reports the IRS issued a statement today saying thousands of victims have lost more than $1 million in the largest phone scam the agency has ever seen with callers demanding payment by pre-paid debit card or wire transfers, threatening arrest, deportation or loss of a business or driver’s license.
AND MORE
• And as usual, other incidents such as arrests for warrants, shoplifting; responses for alarms, disputes, misdemeanor theft, protection order violation, collisions on city streets … and more.
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter