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Updated at 12:17 p.m.
DROWSY DRIVER SLEEPS DURING SOBRIETY TEST
• A 42-year-old motorist was arrested yesterday after he was found unconscious and laying in the driver’s seat of his vehicle, stopped in the middle of the road south of Chehalis. A deputy responding to Highway 603 near Brown Road East yesterday evening observed a needle on the passenger seat, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office. He was walked to an ambulance for a medical evaluation and subsequently fell asleep standing up during a field sobriety test, according to the sheriff’s office. Chief Deputy Stacy Brown said John L. Lininger, who was wanted on a warrant, initially identified himself as his twin brother. They suspect he was under the influence of heroin, but won’t know for sure until they get toxicology tests results, according to Brown. Lininger was booked into the Lewis County Jail for identity theft and forgery and the case referred for a charge of driving under the influence.
BURGLARY CHEHALIS
• Chehalis police were called just after 9 p.m. yesterday by a resident who returned home to the 700 block of Southwest William Street and found the front door unlocked, the inside a mess and the television missing. A weed pipe that was left behind was taken into evidence, according to the Chehalis Police Department.
CAR PROWL
• A pocket knife was reported stolen from inside a vehicle about 6:15 p.m. yesterday at the 800 block of E Street in Centralia, according to the Centralia Police Department.
INDUSTRIAL ACCIDENT
• A man in his his 20s was airlifted to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle overnight after an accident at a plywood mill in the Chehalis Industrial Park. Firefighters and medics called about 3 a.m. to Maurin Road found the patient conscious and responsive, according to Lewis County Fire District 6. Fire Chief Tim Kinder said he understood that the man had fallen from a catwalk onto a piece of machinery that flips plywood, and it flipped him. He was able to call for help, Kinder said. He had pelvic pain and was taken to the hospital for precautionary reasons, Kinder said.
AND MORE
• And as usual, other incidents such as arrests for warrants, shoplifting, misdemeanor assault; responses for alarm, dispute, civil issue, suspicious person, collision on city street … and more, among 153 calls for local law enforcement and / or fire-emergency medical services in the 24-hour period ending about 7 a.m. today.
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter