Archive for February, 2013

Posted by Caleb Hutton

Text courtesy of the Blaine Police Department, with minor edits for style.

Wednesday, Feb. 20

1:45 p.m. A driver was maneuvering his big commercial vehicle through a business parking lot when a tiny part of his truck briefly met with the very edge of the large metal roof awning over a drive up ATM kiosk on Martin Street. The contact was just enough send the roof crashing 10 feet down to the pavement, narrowly but sufficiently missing the vehicles parked around it. Officers responded to investigate the collision, and contacted the lucky car owners to move their autos out of harms way. The broken roof was removed and the ATM’s owner was advised that their cash machine was getting rained on.

Thursday, Feb. 21

12:30 a.m. A family left home on Garfield Street in a rush when their young son fell ill and needed to go to the hospital. They’d not been then long when they remembered that they had loaded a batch of freshly made bread dough into their hot kitchen oven before they left. They called for police assistance and an officer was dispatched to the residence. He contacted a neighbor for assistance, and found that the kitchen was still standing and the baked bread was not ablaze.

1:25 p.m. A police officer was dispatched to a service station on D Street when attendants there came across a counterfeit U.S. $50 bill. The officer impounded the fake note for the U.S. Secret Service, and contacted the person who had tried to pay for fuel with the bogus bill. The man explained that he had received the fake U.S. bill from a bank in South Surrey, B.C. The same service station intercepted another fake $50 bill later the following day.

Friday, Feb. 22

2:57 p.m. Curiosity and temptation got the better of a business employee who was cleaning a storage room and happened upon an old, unused panic alarm remote control. The crew member punched the button to see what would happen, and the device’s long life batteries did the rest. The company called their alarm company to cancel the resulting response by emergency services personnel, and the first arriving officer made sure that everything was all right inside in the Boblett Street business.

4:22 p.m. A commercial driver was backing his truck off of Boblett Street into a business driveway when the passenger side of his trailer struck a Blaine City light pole. The metal pole and light crashed to the pavement blocking the driveway of another business, but missed the people and vehicles in the area. Police arrived to investigate and document the collision. A crew from the city’s electrical department removed the broken pole, placed safety cones around the scene and secured the exposed wiring at the pedestal.

8:56 p.m. A service station employee became suspicious of activity occurring in the cab of a box truck parked on their lot. It was dark and the truck’s windows were all fogged up, but it appeared that the man and woman inside were engaged in an activity both friendly and energetic. The officer who was called to investigate found that either the calisthenics had concluded or had not been quite what they seemed. In either case the couple decided to leave the parking lot and wait elsewhere for their border crossing paperwork.

11:42 p.m. Just before midnight, police responded to a 911 call from a man stating that he had been robbed near the intersection of Third and G streets by a big guy who was possibly armed. It turned out that the big guy the caller referred was the police officer who had written the caller a traffic ticket an hour earlier. The caller then complained that he was employed by the Miss America Pageant and was paid in cash for his labors only to have the ticket writer steal his money. The responding officers tried to help the caller through his concerns but his mental state made that difficult. In the end he was warned that false reporting was a criminal offense.

Saturday, Feb. 23

1:54 p.m. A person called to report that loud music was being played near their home on Pintail Loop around 2:30 a.m. The person was advised to call when the music is actually being played so that police could respond and identify the offending location. The complainant advised that usually starts after his 7 p.m. bedtime and continues through the night. Patrol officers were advised of the complaint for their patrols.

2:35 p.m. Police received multiple calls for service from a elderly resident on Pintail Loop, but none of the events reported could be substantiated by investigation. An officer contacted relatives of the person to advise that their family member may be experiencing some age-related difficulties.

3:47 p.m. A U.S. Customs canine team working at the Peace Arch Port of Entry alerted to a car with California plates, which was re-entering the United States from Canada. Customs officers inspected the vehicle and an adult inside admitted to ownership of several grams of marijuana and a personal use amount of cocaine that was recovered from the man’s luggage. Blaine police were called to investigate, and arrested the 33-year-old Pasadena, Calif., resident for possession of cocaine. He was processed and released pending a mandatory court appearance.

8:03 p.m. Blaine officers responded with U.S. Border Patrol agents to a night time report that a man had walked south out of Peace Arch Park and headed down 2nd Street toward D Street through the residential neighborhood. When he spotted the approaching Border Patrol vehicles the man fled onto property adjacent to the street and tried to evade the responders. He gave up when he realized there were only two sides to the hedgerow he was using for cover, but four patrol cars surrounding him. The man admitted that he had entered the US without inspection, and the agents took him into custody.

9:17 p.m. A couple called police from Blaine Street to report that late the previous evening they had been awakened by the sound of someone jiggling the handle or lock on one of their home’s exterior doors. An officer responded and checked the front and back doors and lock sets, and spoke with the landlord. The information was shared with all officers for their patrols.

10:35 p.m. An officer contacted a resident who stated that two boys had been at his apartment complex possibly knocking on doors and running away. The officer had been in the area and spotted the duo as they ran across D Street, ducking through apartment complexes, and he found the boys nearby. They said they were out playing, but denied any knock and run activities. The pair was advised to head home for the night and they complied.

Monday, Feb. 25

8:53 a.m. An officer patrolling near the school campus stopped a motorist for speeding in the school zone. During the contact the officer found that the driver’s privilege to operate a vehicle in Washington had been suspended for several years, after he failed to take care of a speeding citation he received in Skagit County. The man was arrested for the criminal license violation and his vehicle was impounded. After processing he was released with a mandatory court date for driving with a suspended license, and a notice of infraction for speeding in the school zone.

Tuesday, Feb. 26

8:43 a.m. A man opening for the day at his business near Blaine Marina discovered that overnight thieves had broken in to two large storage sheds and prowled his property, stealing a quantity of metal parts and scrap. Police are investigating and descriptions of the suspects and their vehicle have been provided to all patrol officers. The extent of the loss is still being determined.

10:59 a.m. A business at Blaine Harbor report that a lock had been cut off of one of their cold storage freezer containers to their business overnight. The case is under investigation.

12:06 p.m. Following a report from a resident who suffered graffiti vandalism to his garage on D Street, an officer found several other instances of the same gang style tagging which occurred Monday night in to Tuesday morning, in an area along D and E streets. All of the property owners were contacted and advised of the damage so that they could immediately clean it off and prevent the vandalism from spreading. Meanwhile officers are searching for a fluorescent orange-fingered bad artist with poor spelling and worse social skills.