Community Police & Fire
Gig Harbor Police Blotter: Officers nab a ‘jovial’ shoplifter
Editor’s note: The Blotter is written based on information provided by Gig Harbor Police , Gig Harbor Fire & Medic One and the Pierce County Sheriff’s Office.
Gig Habor police arrested a cheerful 27-year-old Spanaway man on suspicion of stealing more than $200 worth of alcohol from a Point Fosdick Drive grocery store on Jan. 29.
Around noon that day, a witness reported seeing the suspect in an earlier theft. An officer responded and found the 27-year-old lining up alcohol bottles on a bench at a bus stop.
When the officer contacted the suspect — whom the officer described as “jovial” in his report — the 27-year-old laughed and said “Ahhh, man, you got me!” The suspect told the officer he was caught “red-handed” and explained that he was out of work and resorted to stealing and selling booze to support himself.
The suspect offered to return the alcohol to the store, but asked whether he could keep at least one bottle because he was “in need.”
The officer issued the suspect a criminal citation for theft and forwarded a report to the city attorney’s office for charging.
Malfunctioning coffeemaker on a boat
A boat from the Tacoma Fire Department and the Gig Harbor Police boat responded in a hurry on the morning of Tuesday, Jan. 30, to a report of a possible boat fire in Gig Harbor.
It turned out the only thing on fire was a coffeemaker.
According to Gig Harbor Fire & Medic One, a man onboard a 30-foot boat at anchor in the harbor experienced a malfunctioning coffeemaker around 9:30 a.m. Tuesday. It caught some paper on fire, and the man tossed it overboard, where it continued to throw up flames.
Tacoma Fire and GHPD boats responded, though, to make sure the fire hadn’t spread on the boat itself. They escorted the 30-foot boat back to shore to check out the man, who had also discharged a fire extinguisher.
He was uninjured, but badly in need of coffee.
A coffeemaker burns itself out after having been thrown from a boat.
Not a reasonable place to park
Gig Harbor officers arrested a 73-year-old Gig Harbor man on suspicion of driving under the influence after he drove his pickup over a hedge and then parked it in someone else’s driveway.
A witness told officers she watched a black pickup drive over a hedge and into a yard on Soundview Drive. The pickup then reversed and drove away on 61st Street Court.
A few minutes later, another officer noticed a pickup with front-end damaged parked askew in a driveway on a nearby street. The driver, the 73-year-old man, appeared disoriented and told officers he didn’t know what happened.
Officers spotted a half-empty bottle of wine in the truck. Breath tests later revealed the man had a BAC of over .200, well above the legal limit.
Officers had the man’s truck towed, since it was parked in the driveway of someone who didn’t know him. The man was taken to the Kitsap County Jail on suspicion of hit and run and driving without an ignition interlock device.
Teen arrested after suspected DUI crash
Pierce County Sheriff’s Office deputies arrested a 16-year-old on suspicion of vehicular assault and driving under the influence after a collision early on the morning of Jan. 27 on the 4100 block of Wollochet Drive.
A BMW sedan collided with a guardrail on that stretch of road around 2 a.m. that morning. A 17-year-old passenger was ejected from the vehicle. Gig Harbor Fire and Medic One took the passenger to the hospital for treatment.
The 16-year-old driver told deputies he had “a few shots” before driving and admitted he was going too fast. He also told deputies that two other juveniles, who had been in the back seat of the car, ran away from the scene before law enforcement arrived.
Deputies took the 16-year-old to the hospital for a blood draw, then to Remann Hall in Tacoma to be booked into juvenile detention.