Community Police & Fire

Gig Harbor Police Blotter: Serial trespasser arrested

Editor’s note: The Blotter is written based on information provided by Gig Harbor Police and Gig Harbor Fire & Medic One.

Gig Harbor police on April 18 arrested a 26-year-old Gig Harbor man who routinely refuses to leave area businesses and sleeps in city-owned bathrooms at night.

The arrest occurred at a hamburger restaurant on Harborview Drive, but the arresting officer noted in his report that the 26-year-old is well-known to local law enforcement. Law enforcement had already legally trespassed him from several local businesses, including the YMCA, several Subways and Starbucks.

The officer also wrote that the 26-year-old “sleeps in all sorts of City of Gig Harbor bathrooms” and “leaves a mess inside them for Public Works to clean up.” City employees lock the bathrooms at night, but the suspect gets into them anyway and leaves before Public Works crews arrive in the morning to unlock them.

The officer arrested the man when he refused to leave the burger joint. Earlier that day, he had refused to leave another restaurant on North Harborview. Just the day before, he had been “disruptive and verbally abusive” toward employees at Starbuck’s.

The officer booked the 26-year-old into the Kitsap County Jail on suspicion of trespassing and for two outstanding warrants.

GHFMO emergency calls rise by 10 percent

Gig Harbor Fire & Medic One responded to more than 6,500 emergency calls in 2022, a 10 percent increase over 2021.

The fire district released its annual performance report for 2022 this week.

As is typical, the vast majority of GHFMO’s calls were for emergency medical services. EMS accounted for 5,462 of its calls, 84 percent of the total. The district achieved its EMS response time goals (response within 8 minutes for municipal areas, 11 for rural or 16 for remote) more than 85 percent of the time.