Posts Tagged ‘news reporter’

Sharyn’s Sirens: Daily police and fire roundup

Tuesday, July 6th, 2010

CARS AND TRUCK STOLEN

• Centralia police took a report about 6:20 a.m. today that a 1990 Ford Ranger was stolen over the weekend from the 1100 block of K. Street.

• A blue 1998 VW Passat vanished from a driveway at the 100 block of Bowers Road outside Chehalis sometime between 10:30 p.m. on Friday and 6:30 a.m. on Saturday, the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office reported this morning.

• A sheriff’s deputy took a report on Friday that a 1987 Mercury Grand Marquis was stolen from the 100 block of Morris Road in Randle. The $5,000 car was parked at its residence at 9:30 p.m. the night before and gone at 5 a.m., according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office.

BREAKING IN, BREAKING OUT

• Centralia police were called just after 9 p.m. last night about a burglary at a home on the 1400 block of View Street. The victim said two rings, some cash and approximately 100 baseball cards were missing from a bedroom, according the Centralia Police Department.

• Somebody stole a quad and parts for a Ford Mustang  when they got into a temporary storage area on the 400 block of West Main Street in Centralia, according to a report made to police just before 8 p.m. last night. Police described the quad as a blue and gray “Veto Bobcat”.

• A Bucoda-area resident returned home after the long weekend to find somebody had tried to break into her house. A deputy called about 5 p.m. on Monday to the home on the 20,200 block of Bucoda Highway Southeast was told the woman went to open the door between her garage and her her home and the metal catch fell to the floor. Nothing appeared to be missing, but the door frame was broken according to the Thurston County Sheriff’s Office. The outer garage door had been left unlocked, Lt. Chris Mealy said.

• A deputy was called about 8 a.m. on Saturday to the Tenino area when an 88-year-old man’s caregiver discovered someone had broken out the window of his pickup truck. She thought it was unusual because she had locked the gate to the driveway the night before but when she arrived to the residence on the 19,900 block of Steelhead Court Southeast, it was open, according to the Thurston County Sheriff’s Office. Nothing was missing.

• Centralia police were called last night to the 400 block of South Oak Street where somebody had smashed the window of a pickup truck and tried to steal a laptop computer inside which was locked into a holder. They weren’t successful, according to the Centralia Police Department. About  a half hour earlier, at 8 p.m., an officer took a report of a vehicle prowl on the 400 block of West Main Street. A window was broken and missing a GPS device, an Ipod and approximately 50 CDs, according to police.

• The Lewis County Sheriff’s Office reported this morning that somebody broke the lock off a truck’s tool box and took a chop saw, a screw gun, a skill saw and a battery powered tool kit. The estimated $600 theft happened sometime on Friday on the 1300 block of state Route 508 in Onalaska, according to sheriff’s Cmdr. Steve Aust.

OOPS

• A 53-year-old Salkum woman was arrested overnight after a small baggie fell out of her glove box as she was getting her registration for a police officer. A Chehalis tribal officer was checking on a suspicious vehicle about 2 o’clock this morning along the 19,000 block of Anderson Road in Rochester, according to the Thurston County Sheriff’s Office. Florence K. Montes said she was waiting for a friend and handed the officer an expired vehicle registration, sheriff’s Lt. Chris Mealy said. A sheriff’s deputy was called to assist and found a white substance which tested positive for amphetamine, Mealy said. Montes was booked into the Thurston County Jail for unlawful possession of a controlled substance, according to Mealy.

INHALING TOXIC FUMES

• A 22-year-old Winlock woman was jailed yesterday when deputies picked her up at a Winlock address. She was wanted by Chehalis police for inhaling toxic fumes, a misdemeanor. Law officers from Chehalis and the the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office said they come across it from time to time and it grew out of former glue sniffing law. Detective Sgt. Rick McNamara and sheriff’s Cmdr. Steve Aust said the people they come across are using spray paint and even engine cleaner and either spraying it into their hand, a rag or a paper sack and then inhaling it to get  kind of high. “It’s been a problem,” McNamara said. “They’re not only hurting their brain and lungs, they can kill themselves.” Ashley E. Howland was also arrested on a warrant in connection with a misdemeanor theft, according to police.

Toilet explodes, guns fired from rooftop, but holiday ends without serious injuries

Monday, July 5th, 2010

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

Firefighters in Centralia and Chehalis found the Fourth of July surprisingly accident-free, although police had their hands full with the annual fascination with explosive powder.

Somebody blew up a toilet in the men’s bathroom at the skate park off Harrison Avenue in Centralia with an unknown type of firework, according to a report made to the Centralia Police Department about 10:20 p.m. on Saturday.

And officers were called about the same time last night to Eckerson Road where neighbors said a 19-year-old man was on his roof shooting guns into the air.

Witnesses told police he had fired some 50 shots with his .22 rifle and 12-gauge shotgun.

When police arrived, Dana M. Rook, of Centralia, was still on top of his house, but eventually came down, according to police. Officers reported he was intoxicated and tried to struggle with them after he was handcuffed in the back seat of a patrol car.

He was arrested and booked into the Lewis County Jail, according to police, for unlawful discharge of a firearm, minor in possession and resisting arrest.

In Chehalis, firefighters heard lots of racket overnight but it appeared citizens were either careful, or lucky, Fire Chief Kelvin Johnson said this morning.

And responders from Centralia’s Riverside Fire Authority found their night pleasingly uneventful, according to Firefighter-paramedic Rob Smith.

Around 10 o’clock-ish, they were called when a ball from a Roman Candle went out of control and smacked a woman on the backside, but she got away with probably no worse than a little red mark, Smith said.

Residents seem to have made it through the holiday with all their fingers intact, according to Smith. The “old-timers” at the downtown station could hardly believe they got a good night’s sleep last night, he said.

“Not a single fire call all night,” Smith said. “We were just laying there with one eye open and there were no calls.”

News brief: Tenino woman charged with stealing overtime pay from DOT

Monday, July 5th, 2010

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

A Tenino woman who worked for the state Department of Transportation is facing criminal charges in connection with allegations she collected more than $74,000 in unearned overtime compensation by altering her time cards, according to the Washington State Department of Transportation.

Rachel Taylor of Tenino was charged with four counts of first-degree theft and was arraigned in Pierce County Superior Court on Thursday, according to a news release from the state agency.

One of Taylor’s responsibilities as she worked as a secretary at a WSDOT Pierce County construction office was entering the office’s time sheets into the timekeeping system, according to the news release.

Her overtime was flagged by management during a routine review last year and the agency’s internal audit division followed up finding issues during 2007 through last year, according to Lloyd Brown of WSDOT.

She resigned last year instead of being fired, Brown noted.

A civil suit seeking restitution for the state is underway in Thurston County Superior Court, according to Brown.

Sharyn’s Sirens: Daily police and fire roundup

Monday, July 5th, 2010

SPRAY PAINT SPREE

• Centralia police are investigating multiple occurrences of somebody spray painting cars, buildings and fences. The red, silver and orange graffiti was found sometime before Friday morning in several neighborhoods in Centralia, according to police.

MINOR MOTORCYCLE ACCIDENT

• A female passenger on a motorcycle sustained minor injuries on Saturday afternoon when a vehicle pulled in front of the motorcycle along the 1100 block of Scammon Creek Road in Centralia, according to the Centralia Police Department. The slow-speed crash around 3 p.m. knocked both the male motorcycle driver and the female to the ground, police reported.

MISSING MERCURY

• A blue 1993 Mercury Sable was apparently stolen during the Fourth of July Parade yesterday in Centralia. A Centralia police officer took the report about 8:50 p.m. from Yew Street. The four-door car bears a Washington license plate reading 724 ZSO, according to police.

BREAKING AND ENTERING

• Somebody broke the window out a vehicle on the 700 block of H Street in Centralia and took a cell phone, according to a report made to police about 11 a.m. on Saturday. Money was taken from another vehicle during the night on the 900 block of K Street, according to a report made just before that. And the same day, police took a report from the 800 block of Hamilton Avenue of a rear window being broken out during the night.

• Police took a report about 9:15 a.m. on Friday of somebody who climbed through a drive-through window of a business on the 500 block of West Main Street and stole about $100 in change.

• A wallet was reported missing from a vehicle prowl reported about 10:30 on Friday morning at the 1100 block of Roosevelt Avenue in Centralia, according to police.

News brief: Fire Lt. Laura Hanson says, ‘Have fun tonight, and please …’

Sunday, July 4th, 2010

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

Lt. Laura Hanson of Lewis County Fire District 5 is hoping area residents can be encouraged to enjoy public fireworks displays tonight.

But if not and you light off your own fireworks, Hanson says, please:

• Keep water handy
• Don’t relight “duds”. Let fireworks cool then soak in water
• An adult should light all fireworks
• Keep matches and lighters away from children
• Keep pets indoors
• Fireworks should only be used outdoors and lit only one at a time
• If you purchase fireworks, please do so from licensed vendors
• Store fireworks out of reach of children

Last year, mostly on the Fourth of July, there were more than 1,000 fireworks-related fires and 200 injuries reported to the Office of the State Fire Marshal.

The property loss added up to more than $5.6 million across the state, according to the state fire marshal.

Homeless man charged in Chehalis knifing says other guy attacked him

Saturday, July 3rd, 2010

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

The man accused of cutting another man across the back of the neck during a dispute at a Chehalis apartment building was charged Friday with first-degree assault, a class A felony with a maximum penalty of life in prison.

Chehalis police arrested Terry Lee Bryan, 30, described as a transient, after the 1:15 a.m. call on Thursday to the apartments on the 200 block of Northwest Chehalis Avenue.

According to charging documents, officers arrived and encountered several of the building’s inhabitants yelling and pointing out apartment numbers five and six.

When Sheldon Hardy emerged, he was shirtless and his face and upper torso were covered with blood, according to the documents. An officer placed him in a prone handcuffing position on the ground, and then the officer observed a large cut on the back of his neck, the documents say.

The officer entered the other apartment and found Bryan standing there. Bryan said Hardy had come in an attacked him, according to the charging documents.

Hardy, 36, who also had a laceration on his shoulder and another above his eye, was taken to the hospital, treated and then released later in the morning.

The weapon police recovered was a blue, folding box cutter type knife, the kind that uses a razor blade, according to Chehalis police detective Sgt. Rick McNamara.

Bryan has no stable address but has lived in the Chehalis and Centralia area for the past four years, has no income from any source and no felony history, according to police and the attorneys handling his case. However, he has some 22 misdemeanors, mostly trespassing citations, the lawyers told the judge on Friday afternoon in the Chehalis courtroom.

Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Steve Scott requested Bryan be held on $50,000 bail. Defense attorney Bob Schroeter asked Lewis County Superior Court Judge Nelson Hunt to consider $25,000 bail.

Judge Hunt set bail at $100,000.

Bryan’s poverty made him eligible for a court-appointed attorney. His opportunity to make his plea will come next Thursday.
•••
Read the original news story from Thursday, July 1, 2010 here.

News brief: Motorcyclist wrecks on state Route 508, breaks only his ankle

Saturday, July 3rd, 2010

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

A Tumwater man broke his ankle when he crashed his motorcycle this morning on state Route 508 about 11 miles west of Morton, according to the Washington State Patrol.

Troopers called about 10:15 a.m. reported that Rex A. Kellso, 58, was eastbound when he encountered bumps in the road at a curve, lost control and struck a guard rail.

His 2009 Harley-Davidson was described as totaled and he was taken to Morton General Hospital, according to the state patrol.