Community Police & Fire
Gig Harbor Police Blotter | Don’t like the roundabout? Just drive through the middle
Most people don’t like navigating the roundabouts on Burnham Drive. But few go to the lengths that police say a 28-year-old Gig Harbor man did on Dec. 22.
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An officer’s report indicates that at about 11:45 p.m. that night, a white SUV simply drove through the traffic island in the center of the roundabout at Burnham and Harbor Hill drives. The report notes that the SUV also drove onto a sidewalk while merging back into traffic.
After the officer pulled him over, the 28-year-old argued that he had navigated the roundabout properly and hadn’t driven over anything. The officer responded that the dash cam in his patrol car showed otherwise.
The officer cited the 28-year-old with reckless driving. The report does not indicate that the officer saw any signs the driver was intoxicated.
Watch out for scammers
At least two Gig Harbor women reported being the targets of scammers during the holiday season.
In one of the cases, a 79-year-old woman said she responded to a message from “Apple Security” on her iPad. She allowed the scammer access to her tablet, which he used to hack into her credit union account. The scammer then asked her to buy Target gift cards and provide him with the card numbers. She gave the suspect about $1,900.
In the other case, a scammer called a 78-year-old woman. The caller claimed to be from the same credit union that had been mentioned in the other case.
The fraudster told the woman that she needed to withdraw $24,000 from her credit union account and put it in an account at Wells Fargo. If she didn’t, the scammer claimed, a “Chinese company” would take the money.
She did so, not realizing it was a scam until discussing it with a friend later.
Officers took reports on both cases and told the women to notify their credit union about the incidents. They also provided information on the Internet Crime Complaint Center, an FBI-led “central hub for reporting cyber-enabled crime.”
No free rent at this marina
The manager of a private marina called police on Christmas Day, asking them to chase off a sailboat that was moored there without paying rent.
The manager told an officer that the boat had been tied up at the marina a couple weeks before, but had stopped paying for moorage. The boat, operated by a 52-year-old Silverdale man and a 43-year-old woman, moved to the city dock and stayed there for a week. But it came back, and the manager wanted them arrested for trespassing.
The officer explained that he could issue a trespass admonishment, which would bar the couple from remaining at the marina. If they refused to leave or returned after being trespassed, they could then be arrested.
The officer issued the admonishment, but couldn’t get the two subjects’ signatures on it because a “large aggressive pitbull” was in the cabin. The officer later learned that the same dog attacked another officer who was patrolling the city dock a few days before.
The subjects had hooked up to the marina’s power without paying. The manager asked to press theft charges. The officer forwarded a report to city prosecutors.
The two subjects and their sailboat left the marina.