Community Police & Fire

Gig Harbor Police Blotter | Driver killed in wreck near Purdy identified

Gurpreet Kaur, 42, of Gig Harbor died in a Feb. 18 collision at the intersection of Burnham and Purdy drives.

The Pierce County Medical Examiner’s Office identified Kaur as the woman who died in the collision. The office ruled her death an accident.

Kaur, driving a Volkswagon Jetta, tried to turn left from Burnham Drive to northbound Purdy Drive at about 3:30 p.m. that afternoon. Two vehicles going south on Purdy Drive hit the Jetta in the intersection.

‘Skip scan’ artists stole $1,400 in merchandise

Gig Harbor officers cited a couple from South Kitsap County on suspicion of shoplifting more than $600 worth of merchandise from the Gig Harbor Target store in the past six months.

Officers believe the same couple, a man from Olalla and a woman from Port Orchard, also took $762 worth of goods from the Silverdale Target during a series of incidents.

The couple typically used a technique called “skip scan.” They used the self-checkout aisle, but obscured or moved around some items in their cart to avoid paying for them. In several instances, they also brought an 18-month-old child with them.

Officers cited the couple for misdemeanor theft for the Gig Harbor crimes on Feb. 13. Police asked city prosecutors to pursue charges. 

Drunk drivers young …

Officers cited a 20-year-old Gig Harbor man for driving under the influence after he nearly drove his truck into the water at the end of Dorotich Street early on Feb. 22.

The driver admitted to drinking an alcoholic beverage called Four Loko earlier in the evening. He said he was trying to get to a home on Rosedale Street, and “must have taken a wrong turn.”

That wrong turn included driving over a painted curb and nearly hitting a fire hydrant. Only a large hedge stopped him from driving right into the water.

The 20-year-old cooperated with the officer’s investigation. Police cited him for DUI and gave him a ride home.

… and not so young

A Gig Harbor officer cited a 71-year-old Gig Harbor woman for DUI on Feb. 20 after she drove her vehicle the wrong direction on the ramp from Wollochet Drive to westbound Highway 16.

The woman realized her mistake halfway down the ramp and tried to turn around. In doing so she backed her car into a ditch. A passerby agreed to drive her vehicle to a nearby gas station, where police found her.

She told officers she had several glasses at a Gig Harbor wine bar and admitted she shouldn’t have driven. They cited her and let the woman’s daughter drive her home.

Woman arrested for shoving lieutenant

A 36-year-old woman, upset at the pace of an investigation into a crime she reported, threw brochures around the lobby of the Gig Harbor Police Department, shoved a lieutenant and shattered a coffee cup, according to a police report. 

Officers arrested the woman on suspicion of simple assault of a police officer following the incident on Feb. 13.

The woman walked in to the GHPD office to complain that “nothing was being done” about an assault on her son that she previously reported. During a conversation with GHPD staff, she became upset and shattered a cup holding pens. 

A department lieutenant said the woman shoved him into a wall when he tried to calm her. The report did not note her height and weight.

Officers took her to the Pierce County Jail, where jail staff cleared her. She could still face criminal charges.

He got his ride, but not home

Police stopped to check on a 61-year-old Bremerton man who was walking west on Highway 16 late on Feb. 5. He asked them for a ride to Kitsap County — which he got, just not in the way he hoped.

The 61-year-old told police that he had been released from the Nisqually Jail and had been walking toward his Bremerton home all day. He asked the officer if he could get a ride to Bremerton or Port Orchard.

The officer ran the 61-year-old’s name and learned that he was the subject of a Kitsap County arrest warrant. The officer took the man to Port Orchard, location of the Kitsap County Jail.

Mistaken identity

A 35-year-old Tacoma man, leaving his job at a local restaurant, ran from a Gig Harbor officer on Jan. 30 after mistaking him for immigration enforcement.

The resulting manhunt consumed the time of at least a half-dozen officers from Gig Harbor and the Pierce County Sheriff’s Office.

An officer responded to a Kimball Drive shopping center about 8:30 p.m. for a burglary alarm. He saw what he they described as a Hispanic male walking in the parking lot.

The officer asked him to stop, but he fled instead. Other officers joined in the search. They eventually found the man standing along the side of the road, enjoying an energy drink.

The man told police he was leaving his shift at a local restaurant when the officer asked him to stop. He assumed the officers were federal agents and fled. An officer called the restaurant owner, who confirmed the man’s story.

Police released the man at the scene. The burglary alarm, at a different business than the one the 35-year-old worked at, had been accidentally set off by a new employee.