Lewis County Sirens.com

OVERHEATED DOG LEADS TO CITATION

• Centralia police were called to a city parking lot on the 100 block of North Tower Avenue about 4 p.m. yesterday where they found a dog had been left in a hot vehicle for what they learned was more than two hours. Officers could see the Blue Heeler-type dog was panting heavily and appeared to be in distress, according to Centralia Police Officer John Panco. While police were attempting to find the truck’s owner, the owner arrived, Panco said. The dog was given some water and seemed to be okay, he said. The temperatures inside the truck were measured between 92 degrees and 102 degrees, according to police. The owner, Gary J. Mersereau, 30, of Pe Ell was cited for misdemeanor animal negligence.

DRUGS

• Centralia police arrested a 24-year-old Rochester woman last night for possession of heroin and a misdemeanor warrant. Amanda D. Chamberlain was booked into the Lewis County Jail following her contact with an officer just before 10 p.m. at Centralia College Boulevard and South Silver Street, according to the Centralia Police Department.

• Several people are in custody following a DEA investigation involving methamphetamine that included Lewis County, according the federal Drug Enforcement Administration. More later.

GRAFFITI

• Chehalis police took a report yesterday of graffiti spray painted in red on playground equipment at the park on Southwest 13th Street. Similar graffiti – with the letters BAST and the numbers 13 and 14 – was found the day before on a billboard near Northeast Kresky and Hampe Way, according to the Chehalis Police Department.

THEFT

• Somebody removed a window and unlocked a door to get inside a residence on the 100 block of Kiona Road in Randle early yesterday, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office. The residents said they returned about 1 a.m. to discover several items missing, such as collectible knives, a DVD player, a VCR and craft items, the sheriff’s office said.

• Chehalis police were called about 8 o’clock yesterday morning to the 2100 block of Jackson Highway where a green ATV had been stolen from a trailer it was on.

• Police were called about 1 p.m. yesterday to the Centralia Outlet Mall along Lum Road where a sign had been stolen from the front of the Billabong store. Police were told the images of two people taking the three feet by three feet sign were captured on security camera, according to a police department spokesperson. He didn’t know when the theft occurred.

• Chehalis police were called about 9:45 p.m. last night to Wal-Mart to a report three males took cash from the registers. Further details were unavailable.

• Chehalis police took a report about 2:45 p.m. yesterday of a vehicle prowl on the 600 block of Northwest St. Helens Avenue. A wallet was missing from the unlocked vehicle, Deputy Chief Randy Kaut said.

• Chehalis police took a report yesterday of repeated prowls to the same vehicle on Northeast Cascade Avenue.

• Centralia police were called yesterday morning to a vehicle prowl on the 100 block of East Bridge Street. A small amount of change was taken, according to the Centralia Police Department.

NATURAL GAS LEAKS PROMPTS EVACUATIONS IN CENTRALIA

• A natural gas line broken by a construction crew prompted evacuations in a roughly two-block area near the 700 block of South Pearl Street in Centralia this morning. Firefighters and police were called just before 8 a.m. Centralia police said less than a dozen people voluntarily evacuated. Police took a call about 8:30 a.m. that someone was lighting bottle rockets and aiming them toward the area, but no evidence was found that occurred, according to Officer John Panco. The area was closed to traffic for more than an hour while workers repaired the leak, according to police.

GUNPOINT ROBBERY

Updated at 3:45 p.m.

• Centralia police arrested a 26-year-old man yesterday after he allegedly robbed a male at gunpoint yesterday afternoon in Centralia. Officers called about 3:25 p.m. to the 1400 block of Jensen Street said the 20-year-old victim told them he was confronted at gunpoint by two people in a red car who demanded money but then fled the area when he ran from them. A responding officer spotted the car near the 1400 block of View Avenue and one of its occupants bailed out and fled, according to the Centralia Police Department. Officers captured the suspect a few blocks away in a trailer park on the 1200 block of Harrison Avenue, detective Sgt. Pat Fitzgerald said. The suspect, Benjamin S. Alaniz of Chehalis, was taken to Providence Centralia Hospital with exhaustion-related symptoms from running, and then was booked into the Lewis County Jail for first-degree robbery and possession of a controlled substance, Fitzgerald said. A search of the vehicle turned up a loaded semi-automatic pistol and several rounds of ammunition, according to police. Fitzgerald said an inspection of the gun revealed the trigger had actually been pulled, but the gun failed to fire. Fitzgerald said the victim was acquainted with the pair and had been meeting them in the area with $1,000 in his pocket. He declined to speculate what the money was for. The driver of the car was released. Police found a small amount of white crystalline substance on Alaniz, Fitzgerald said.

THEFT

• Chehalis police were called about 4:20 this morning about two teenage boys running out of Safeway on South Market Boulevard with two cases of beer.

VANDALISM

• Chehalis police were called yesterday afternoon about graffiti on a billboard at Northeast Kresky Avenue and Hampe Way in Chehalis.

DRUGS

• Police arrested a 29-year-old Chehalis woman yesterday morning for allegedly filling somebody else’s prescription at a pharmacy on the 500 block of South Tower Avenue in Centralia. Andrea A. Smith was arrested and booked into the Lewis County Jail for forgery and possession of a controlled substance, according to the Centralia Police Department.

CENTRALIA TEENS ARRESTED AFTER GREAT WOLF LODGE ATTACK

• The Olympian reports a 15-year-old boy was beaten and robbed of his iPod at the Great Wolf Lodge in Grand Mound by Centralia teenagers. Read about it here

CORRECTION: The gunpoint robbery item has been updated to reflect the car was reportedly occupied by a man and a woman, not two men.