Updated at 6:01 p.m.
BIG WIRE THEFT
• Someone stole an estimated $6,000 worth of wire from a rock pit at the 3000 block of Foron Road outside Centralia over the weekend, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office. Chief Civil Deputy Stacy Brown reports this morning that 400 feet of wire was taken from Dulin Construction between Friday and Monday. Brown said she didn’t know if it was in-use wiring ripped from machinery or a building or if it was product that was being stored.
AUTO THEFT
• A black 1996 Honda Accord was reported stolen yesterday between 5:15 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. from behind the football stadium off the 2500 block of Mount Vista Road in Centralia. Paint is peeling from the trunk and roof of the four-door vehicle, with a license plate reading 505 XRH, according to the Centralia Police Department.
MOTEL SERVICES THEFT
• A 66-year-old Centralia woman was arrested yesterday at the 1300 block of Belmont Avenue in Centralia for allegedly refusing to leave or pay for a room she rented. Centralia police called about 1:40 p.m. cited Alexa S. Hoover for defrauding an innkeeper and then released her, according to the Centralia Police Department.
FAKE BILL
• Chehalis police were called to Wal-Mart around 11:40 p.m. yesterday when a customer attempted to spend what turned out to be a counterfeit $100 bill. An officer took possession of the bill to send along to the U.S. Secret Service but there was no established intent on the part of the 64-year-old Centralia man to engage in wrongdoing, according to the Chehalis Police Department.
LEWIS COUNTY MAN FACES ELUDING AND RELATED CHARGES
• A 44-year-old Mineral resident pleaded not guilty yesterday in Cowlitz County Superior Court to numerous charges stemming from an incident earlier this month in which he allegedly rammed patrol cars and led police on a chase through Longview, according to The (Longview) Daily News. News reporter Justin Pittman writes that on Oct. 5 when the pursuit ended, Mark A. Koopman refused to leave his vehicle and began cutting himself, prompting an officer to break a window, leading to a laceration that required surgery.
FROM THE COURTS
• An opinion filed yesterday by the Washington Court of Appeals affirmed a dismissal by a Lewis County Superior Court judge of a felony shoplifting charge against a Centralia man from last year. In February 2013, 41-year-old Tom Reeves of Centralia was arrested after allegedly using pliers to cut a security device from merchandise at Wal-Mart in Chehalis, and fleeing on his bicycle. Police located Reeves just down the road and recovered a stolen surveillance camera set from a backpack, according to authorities, and prosecutors charged him with retail theft with extenuating circumstances. The felony charge was based on the theory the use of pliers was an extenuating circumstance, but the law states “(A)n extenuating circumstance for retail theft includes being in possession of ‘an item, article, implement, or device designed to overcome security systems including, but not limited to, lined bags or tag removers’.” The trial court reasoned that including common tools in the definition of devices designed to overcome security systems would render every act of removing a security device an extenuating circumstance, the three-member panel of the Court of Appeals Division II wrote.
LOST IN THE WOODS
• Lewis County Search and Rescue this morning located a pair of mushroom hunters who had spent the night outside near Packwood. A spokesperson for the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office had no further information this morning. Lewis County Fire District 10 Chief Lonnie Goble said his department was not called to render any aid.
COLLISION
• A 60-year-old Glenoma man was transported to the hospital this afternoon after his car ran off of U.S. Highway 12 near Randle and struck a tree. Bert D. Dallman was westbound and traveling too fast for conditions when he wrecked about 2 p.m., roughly four miles west of town, according to the Washington State Patrol. The 1998 Chevrolet Cavalier was totaled, according to the state patrol. Lewis County Fire District 14 Chief Jeff Jaques said the driver’s injuries were minor. “He traveled through the grass a ways before he hit the tree,” Jaques said. “It was a pretty good-sized fir tree; the tree didn’t give.”
AND MORE
• And as usual, other incidents such as arrests for warrants, shoplifting, driving with suspended license; responses for alarm, found bicycle, disorderly person, misdemeanor assault, possible sex-related offense, suspicious circumstances, bullying at school, collisions on city streets … and more.
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CORRECTION: This has been updated to correctly identify the woman cited and removed from a Centralia motel for refusing to pay. Centralia police erroneously reported to the news media that it was a 57-year-old Centralia with a different name.
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter