Community Police & Fire

Gig Harbor Police Blotter: Officers seize range of pills, powders, other drugs

Posted on January 26th, 2023 By:

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

Gig Harbor officers seized a variety of illegal drugs from a car parked in an apartment complex on Soundview Drive early on the morning of Jan. 22.

Officers said the department had received numerous reports of possible drug activity at an apartment in the complex. While patrolling the area, officers noticed two cars idling in its parking lot. Paraphernalia and possible narcotics were in plain sight in one of them.

After obtaining the search warrant, officers found a wide variety of possible fentanyl, heroin, assorted pills, steroids and powders inside one of the vehicles. Officers also seized a firearm from the vehicle. No estimated street value of the illegal drugs was immediately available.

Suspect threatens delivery driver with hatchet, hammer

Police arrested a 41-year-old Gig Harbor man after he allegedly threatened a delivery driver and damaged his delivery truck with a hammer and a hatchet.

The owner of a business on Point Fosdick Drive called 911 on Jan. 20 to report that an intoxicated man was threatening to shoot a delivery driver outside his store. An officer who happened to be nearby arrived to find the suspect advancing toward the delivery driver, brandishing a hammer and a hatchet. (Officers did not find a gun, despite the reported threats.) The suspect apparently also had damaged the delivery truck with the hammer.

The suspect fled the area in a silver pickup, which he abandoned at an apartment building on 35th Avenue. The suspect’s wife and infant child were also in the pickup.

Officers found the suspect in the woods nearby. The hammer and hatchet were inside the truck.

Witnesses described the suspect as being highly intoxicated. The suspect apparently was upset that the delivery driver’s vehicle was blocking the road.

Officers arrested the suspect on suspicion of several charges, including aggravated assault and eluding police.

Stolen truck found nearby

Officers recovered a stolen 1999 Ford pickup just a few minutes after a woman stole it with the truck owner’s dog still inside.

The truck owner reported the vehicle stolen around 2 p.m. Jan. 24. While one officer was taking his report, another officer found the truck at nearby St. Anthony Hospital.

Security footage from the hospital identified a suspect, a 30-year-old woman. Officers soon found her at Target, another store in the area.

The woman claimed that she took the truck — the dog apparently did not object too strenuously —to drive to the nearby hospital to seek help with her drug addiction. The hospital is about a 20-minute walk from where the truck was stolen.

But while in the truck, she told officers, she found drugs that she figured must belong to the truck owner. She decided to use the drugs instead of seeking help at the hospital.

Officers referred the case to the Pierce County Prosecutor’s Office for review of possible vehicle theft charges. Officers gave the suspect a ride to her family’s home in the Tahuya area of Kitsap County.