With one major exception, all major local fire departments and law enforcement agencies contacted said they had nothing of significance to report from the past day, also excluding the Chehalis Police Department. Nobody was available there to pass along any information on recent incidents.
Watch for: Skydiver comes down too fast during exhibition at Toledo Elementary School yesterday, breaks leg
THEFT FROM STORAGE CONTAINER
• An estimated $50,000 of goods described as flood prevention items were discovered missing from an outdoor storage container at K-Mart in Chehalis yesterday. Chehalis police said it’s not clear when the equipment was taken from the retailer on Louisiana Avenue.
MISSING MEDS
• Centralia police took a report yesterday afternoon of unspecified medication stolen from a vehicle in a grocery store parking lot while the man was shopping. Police noted they have no suspects from the approximately 4 p.m. car prowl on the 500 block of South Tower Avenue.
• Chehalis police were called yesterday morning from Southwest Lewis Street about the theft of prescription medication.
SMASH AND STEAL
• The Thurston County Sheriff’s Office today reported somebody smashed a car window and stole a purse with its wallet, bank book, credit cards and cell phone. The report about the incident on the 6100 block of Churchill Road Southeast outside of Tenino was made online to the sheriff’s office on Saturday.
EXPENSIVE GARDEN TOOL TAKEN
• When a 71-year-old Maytown area woman went out to do yard work over the weekend, her Craftsman high-wheeled trimmer was missing, the Thurston County Sheriff’s Office reported today. The value was $350. Also taken from her shed on the 2000 block of Beaver Creek Road were full five-gallon and three-gallon gas cans, the sheriff’s office said.
MARIJUANA
• James Dickason, 45, of Centralia, was arrested after a small jar of suspected marijuana was found in his pocket when he was stopped by a Chehalis police officer early this morning. He was cited and then released for possession of the misdemeanor amount of the drug, according to police.
CAT CARRIED OFF BY WILDLIFE
• Chehalis police were called just before 2 p.m. yesterday to a report a raccoon stole a kitten and took off with it from Northwest Shoreline Drive. Further details about the incident were unavailable today from police, as a report was made electronically and the computer system used countywide was “down” for maintenance, according to Chehalis Police Department detective Sgt. Rick McNamara.
Two more suspects – including a Toledo man – are expected to be transferred into federal custody today from a local group authorities call a major methamphetamine-trafficking organization in Southwest Washington.
Anthony Wayne Reisbeck, 43, of Toledo and Randy Scott Chalupa, 47, of Longview, will move into the federal court system today; as did Erica Deann Lewis, 34, of Toledo, after her Friday arrest in Toledo, according to detective Sgt. Kevin Tate of the Cowlitz-Wahkiakum Narcotics Task Force.
The task force is looking at numerous Lewis and Cowlitz County residents as they begin their “second wave” of seeking federal prosecutions for previously locally charged individuals, Tate said.
Lewis was served a no-bail federal warrant and transferred to Tacoma for arraignment in U.S. District Court, according to Tate.
“This is an ongoing investigation, much more significant than it might appear to the public at this point,” Tate said this morning.
The task force alleges the network has primarily been purchasing from Mexican drug traffickers, and also trying to manufacture meth on a small scale.
The so-called first wave came from arrests in late February and early March, he said. Detectives seized two cars, one registered to Lewis, and found more than a pound of methamphetamine, he said.
Lewis was later arrested near Gee Cee’s truck stop. Her home and two others in Lewis County were searched on March 25. She was arrested Friday driving near her home, Tate said.
Lewis County Sheriff’s Office detectives have assisted, he said. The task force is made up of law enforcement officers from the Cowlitz County Sheriff’s Office, Longview Police Department, Kelso Police Department, the Washington State Patrol and as available from Wahkiakum County.
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This news story has been corrected since it was first posted. Randy Scott Chapula’s first name was inadvertently omitted.
The search for the body of the missing climber on Mount Rainier will hopefully resume later this week, a park spokesperson said this morning.
Mark Wedeven, 27, of Olympia, went missing after an avalanche early Saturday morning on the Ingraham Glacier. He was one of 11 people overtaken by the snow. The others survived, but Wedeven is presumed dead, according to Mount Rainier National Park spokesperson Kevin Bacher.
Ironically, the worst ever climbing accident in U.S. history was on Mount Rainier, on the same glacier and on the same route, Bacher said.
It happened almost 29 years ago, on June 21, 1981. It was also a “slab” avalanche, according to Bacher.
“In that case, 11 people were killed by the avalanche, so the similarities in this case were spooky,” he said.
This particular route is an off-shoot of one of the two most popular climbs on Mount Rainier. Climbers depart from Paradise for the hike, Bacher said.
A limited search took place yesterday for Wedeven, Bacher said.
Park rangers stationed at Camp Muir continue to be hampered in their ability to search due to dangerous avalanche conditions on the upper mountain, Bacher said.
The search will resume as soon as it is safe, Bacher said.
An 11-year-old boy on a bicycle was struck by a car on Harrison Avenue in Centralia yesterday.
Police and aid called just after 5 p.m. said the Centralia resident sustained cuts and a leg injury. He was taken to Providence Centralia Hospital.
Centralia Police Department Sgt. Carl Buster said the child came across the busy arterial from the south side near the Panda Inn restaurant and was hit by a westbound Mitsubishi Lancer. He was accompanied by three other young bicyclists, Buster said.
One driver stopped, but the 18-year-old driver of the Mitsubishi didn’t even have a chance to see the boy, Buster said. She was not cited, he said.
TWO MEN TASED BY CENTRALIA POLICE
• Officers discharged their Taser guns in two separate incidents yesterday afternoon in Centralia when subjects reportedly resisted arrest. Police say Daniel J. Miller, 19, tried to pull away and fight after a 3:20 p.m. traffic stop on Kresky Avenue and East Summa Street. The Centralia resident was then booked for obstructing and resisting arrest, according to police. The initial traffic offense for which Miller was being arrested wasn’t released. At about 3:35 p.m., as another officer was arresting a 27-year-old Centralia man for shoplifting shoes over on Lum Road, the subject resisted and he was Tased, according to police. Bradley P. Whitcomb was then booked for third-degree theft, police reported. Further details were not immediately available this morning.
MORE STUFF STOLEN
• Two firearms, jewelry and tools were reportedly taken in a burglary to a residence on the 700 block of North Pearl Street in Centralia, according to a report made about 9:45 last night.
• Centralia police responded to a report made about 10:25 a.m. yesterday about a burglary to an un-named business. Somebody had disabled the surveillance equipment at the establishment on the 1200 block of Alder Street, according to an officer’s report. Police did not report details about what was taken.
• Somebody broke out a vehicle window and made off with a woman’s purse, according to a report made to Chehalis police about 8:45 a.m. yesterday. The Dodge caravan was parked in the 100 block of Northeast Washington Avenue.
• Several tools were stolen during a vehicle prowl in a lot on the 2000 block of Johnson Road in Centralia, according to a report made to police about 2:40 p.m. yesterday.
VEHICLE WINDOW SHATTERED
• Yet another smashed windshield was reported in Centralia yesterday afternoon. Police were called about 4:50 p.m. about the vandalism on the 200 block of Tilley Avenue.
STAFF MEMBERS AT GREEN HILL SCHOOL KICKED, PUSHED AND PUNCHED
• Chehalis police yesterday handled two reports of residents of Green Hill School assaulting staff members. The incidents actually occurred last month at the state prison for juvenile males on 11th Street, according to Chehalis Police Department detective Sgt. Rick McNamara. One subject, an 18-year-old reportedly kicked a male staff member in the head and has already been transferred to the state prison for adults based on the incident, McNamara said. In a separate case, a 16-year-old reportedly pushed one staff member into a wall and punched another staff member in the head, the sergeant said. No serious injuries resulted, he said. Each were arrested and the cases referred on for charging decisions for custodial assault. The delay in the arrests comes from the customary flow of paperwork from Green Hill to the police department, McNamara said.
Traffic was clogged up on Harrison Avenue in Centralia yesterday evening after a three-vehicle collision, but no serious injuries were reported.
Troopers and aid were called about 5:20 p.m. to the wreck on the 2800 block of Harrison Avenue, about one mile north of the city limits.
The Washington State Patrol blamed the crash on inattention, when the 17-year-old driver of a 1990 Toyota Camry was distracted by something outside his car and rear-ended a 2009 Kia Optima, pushing that car into a Ford 450 flatbed truck.
A northbound lane was closed for about an hour and motorists were rerouted onto a side street, according to the Riverside Fire Authority.
The driver of the Kia, Rebecca L. Freeman, 41, was taken by ambulance to Providence Centralia Hospital with possible neck and back injuries, according to the state patrol. The Rochester woman was treated and has been released, the hospital said this morning.
The two cars were described as totaled and the truck sustained an estimated $1000 damage, according to the responding trooper.
Franklin C. Swenson, 17, of Rochester, was to be cited for second-degree negligent driving, according to the state patrol.
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