Tag: eluding

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

Wednesday, March 20

1:45 p.m. A police officer driving on Peace Portal had his patrol car pelted by rocks thrown up by a passing vehicle. This was strange since both cars were driving on a clear paved street and even the roadway shoulders were gravel free. The mystery was resolved a couple of minutes later when the passing car was found disabled nearby. It turned out that the patrol car had been struck by the passing car’s loosened lug nuts flying off its wheel. The driver realized that something was seriously amiss just in time to stop before the wheel itself flew off into traffic. Officers searched for and recovered three of the projectiles, and delivered them to the mechanic who was making repairs.

8:40 p.m. A Blaine business on D Street called to report receiving counterfeit U.S. currency after a customer attempted to pay for purchased goods. An officer arrived and contacted the customer, a business person from British Columbia who advised that she had received the fake U.S. $50 bill from one of her customers a week earlier. The officer confiscated the paper and forwarded it to the U.S. Secret Service.

Thursday, March 21

12:45 a.m. A patrol officer found a transient camped out on the porch of a closed store at about 1 a.m. on a freezing night. The gentleman was not subject to any criminal restraints. Police gave him a courtesy ride to the Lighthouse Mission to save him from spending the rest of the night in the frigid dark.

5:08 p.m. A patrol officer observed a vehicle fail to yield for a Blaine School District bus which had stopped on Peace Portal Drive with its warning lights flashing and was discharging students. The officer stopped the violator and listened to his explanation that he was from out of state and did not know that he needed to stop for standing school buses displaying flashing lights and stop signs. The motorist was educated with a traffic citation.

Friday, March 22

9:45 a.m. A city employee reported that a door to a house on a Harrison Avenue was ajar, although there was no one around the place. Police officers responded and checked the property. There was no fresh damage or indications of any crime except neglect. The door was closed again, the officers returned to patrol, and the neighborhood tabby cat returned to the sunny patch of porch which it had sulkily abandoned when the cops arrived.

9:52 a.m Blaine officers investigating a case involving a stolen vehicle left at a hit and run scene stopped a vehicle on the freeway on-ramp at the south end of Blaine. The driver of the stopped car fled on foot into a nearby industrial area. Police and U.S. Border Patrol agents established a perimeter and U.S. Border Patrol agents tracked the suspect to his hiding place in a commercial dumpster behind a business. The 24-year-old Birch Bay resident was also wanted by the sheriff’s office for investigation on a burglary, and was booked into jail.

11:26 a.m. A resident on Mitchell Street called police to report that his vehicle was stolen from his home overnight. The remains of his 1992 Cadillac were found abandoned and destroyed by a collision with a tree near the freeway off ramp to the truck route. Police are investigating.

1:07 p.m. A resident on Peace Portal Drive reported that her bicycle had been stolen overnight. The tan REI Novara-brand Safari-model mountain bike is valued at several hundred dollars. Police are investigating.

2:02 p.m. Police were asked to intercede in a possible truancy case involving two high school students on Cedar Street. An officer got information that the kids might be at home, and found them there claiming they were sick. When Mom found out the kids were home she asked for assistance getting the teens delivered back to school. The officer was happy to oblige and the school was happy to have their customers back on campus.

8:17 p.m. An officer was dispatched to a business on 12th Street to take custody of two counterfeit U.S. $20 bills. The notes were discovered when employees were balancing their tills. Police took the bills and forwarded them to the U.S. Secret Service.

Saturday, March 23

11:10 a.m. A homeowner on a Rene Court was contacted by an older motorist who stopped to ask for directions. The gentleman appeared disoriented and possibly having breathing difficulty. The resident went inside for a minute to call for assistance but the motorist drove away. Officers searched the area for a blue newer Cadillac with a military veteran license plate and placed a welfare check request with neighboring agencies, but the driver and vehicle were not located.

2 p.m. A patrol officer attempted to stop a vehicle speeding 64 mph in the 35 mph zone on Peace Portal. The driver apparently tried to evade the officer by turning onto side streets, but was overtaken and stopped on Clyde Street. The motorist was arrested for reckless driving and negligent eluding, and released after signing a promise to appear for a mandatory court hearing.

Sunday, March 24

5:10 a.m. U.S. Customs and Border Protection called and requested Blaine Police interview a disoriented driver on Second Street. An officer arrived at the Peace Arch Port of Entry and contacted a Bothell, Wash., resident who had gotten lost after leaving a grocery store near his home hours earlier. The man agreed to get some sleep at a nearby motel and wait until daylight to drive again, so as not to get lost. The officer escorted him to the motel to make sure he got there.

6:10 p.m. A sharp eyed cashier at a convenience store service station on D Street found a counterfeit U.S. $20 bill among the cash offered by a regular customer for payment. Police were called to the scene and interviewed the customer. She explained that the fake U.S. note had been received as payment at their own business in Vancouver, B.C., at some point in the preceding days. The bogus bill was impounded by officers and will be forwarded to the U.S. Secret Service along with information about its travels.

6:47 p.m. Police received a report of a red Mustang driving recklessly in a mall parking lot on H Street. An officer arrived within a minute and upon arrival the car had already left the area. There was smoke still visible from the burning tires when officers arrived.

7:10 p.m. Customers busily washing their clothes in a coin laundry business on Third Street found a credit card laying in one of the machines, and brought it to a police officer who was busily washing his patrol car in the nearby station parking lot. The customer was thanked, the card was impounded, and the owner or her bank will be advised of the recovery.

Monday, March 25

2:10 p.m. Officers responded to a report of two injured bald eagles in a Semiahmoo Development. The state wildlife agency was advised and a private agency responded to care for the birds.

7:15 p.m. A passerby in a commercial business parking lot on H Street noticed a car without a handicapped parking permit stopped in a marked handicapped stall. She mentioned to the driver that a handicapped permit was needed to use the parking place, but the man’s profane abusive reply made it very clear that education was not going to be effective at resolving the problem. The witness picked up the phone to call the police, and as she did so the driver and vehicle left the parking lot. Officers have a valid vehicle license plate on the gray Honda Civic and are looking to contact and identify the suspect.

7:46 p.m. A man called from Eighth Street asking for a welfare check on his child, who is the subject of a custody dispute and currently under the court ordered care of the child’s mother. The gentleman had no direct information the child was in harm’s way, and the court order prevented him from having any contact whatsoever with child or mother. An officer advised him that the police were not going to violate the court order on his behalf, and he should use his upcoming court date to air his concerns.