BABY DELIVERED AT FIRE STATION, BY DAD
• Firefighters in Maytown got to help deliver a baby overnight, sort of. West Thurston Regional Fire Authority Battalion Chief Jacob Yake said a couple arrived at the fire station on Reeder Road about 3:30 this morning. “The car pulled into the fire station then started laying on its horn and as he was calling 911, he basically caught the baby.” A crew of three came outside and took mother and infant to the hospital, Yake said. The father returned later to announce it was a healthy baby boy, Yake said. It’s not uncommon for emergency responder to help with child birth, according to Yake, but “I don’t know we’ve ever had ’em in the parking lot of the station.”
SPINOUTS AND ROLLOVERS
• Firefighters from Chehalis through Littlerock were kept super busy for about a two-hour period last night with calls for cars slipping off the roadways in the snow. No injuries were reported. The Chehalis Fire Department responded to one vehicle at Devries and Shorey Roads that had slid back down a hill, rolled and went down an embankment, narrowly missing a pond, according to Acting Capt. Derrick Paul. The calls began about 7 p.m. and added up to a half dozen, Paul said. Firefighters from Grand Mound, Rochester, Maytown and Littlerock must have answered close to a dozen calls of in the same period, according to West Thurston Regional Fire Authority Battalion Chief Jacob Yake
MYSTERY OPERATOR PUTS LOGGING EQUIPMENT TO WORK
• The Lewis County Sheriff’s Office reported this morning somebody took a Cat 527 for a joy ride near where it had been parked along the 3000 line off Lincoln Creek Road outside Centralia. The subject also drove a 330 Cat shovel/loader sometime before early Monday morning and used the logging equipment to clear some brush and trees and lift up a gate belonging to the state Department of Natural Resources, according to Chief Civil Deputy Stacy Brown. The damage to the gat is estimated at $4,000.
FORGERY
• A woman who accidentally left her wallet in a shopping cart at K-Mart in Chehalis called police about 8:30 p.m. last night to say she learned somebody had used her credit card and before the night was over, police had tracked down a suspect who was arrested. Police detective Sgt. Rick McNamara said K-Mart called and said the card was being used a second time and somebody got a license plate of the connected vehicle. An officer found the motor home parked at a Chehalis apartment complex and contacted Noelle I. Straggi, 43, who was booked into the Lewis County Jail for forgery and possession of stolen property, McNamara said. The case involving a 53-year-old Centralia woman who was with her was referred for possible charges as well, McNamara said.
FIREARM THEFT
• A sheriff’s deputy took a report on Tuesday of a Springfield .45 caliber gun stolen from the 200 block of Jones Road in Winlock, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office. An investigation led to Shannon L. Kerssen, 33, who was arrested and booked into jail for theft of a firearm, Chief Civil Deputy Stacy Brown said.
ATTEMPTED BURGLARY
• Centralia police say a 38-year-old Centralia man trespassed onto property where a house was being remodeled and tried to steal “property” before he was apprehended yesterday afternoon in Centralia. Douglas W. Lohman was arrested and booked into the Lewis County Jail for attempted burglary an incident about 10:45 a.m. related to the 1000 block of Long Road, according to the Centralia Police Department.
DRUGS
• Centralia police arrested a 40-year-old man yesterday afternoon for an outstanding warrant and possession of methamphetamine. James A. Mueller of Chehalis was booked into the Lewis County Jail following his contact with an officer at the 300 block of Railroad Avenue, according to the Centralia Police Department. The case was not charged, pending further investigation.
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter