All persons named in the police blotter are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

Stolen Vehicle

On April 26 at about 2:07 pm an officer was driving down Chestnut Street and ran the license plate of a vehicle in a driveway where people were standing around looking at it. By the time he got to the end of the block the WACIC return showed the vehicle was reported stolen out of Spokane. The officer wasn’t certain he had read the plate number correctly so he turned around. When he got back to the home where the vehicle was located he contacted the people nearby and inquired about the car. The person sitting in the driver’s seat handed the officer a piece of paper which was said to be a bill of sale and said he had just purchased the car from a juvenile male he did not know at Fred Meyer for $200, then dropped him off at the Amtrak station in Tacoma. The purchaser of the vehicle handed the key to the officer and said, “Here’s the key, I noticed there was something wrong with it when I got here.” The key provided to the officer appeared to be “shaved” which is a common method of stealing cars. When the officer patted down the suspect he was found to be in possession of a loose wad of marijuana. The vehicle was confirmed to be stolen. The officer told the suspect he though the man knew, or in any case should have known, that the car was stolen. The suspect replied “times are tough, I needed a car.” The vehicle was impounded so it could be processed for evidence and the suspect was arrested and booked into Pierce County Jail for possession of a stolen motor vehicle and unlawful possession of a controlled substance.

Theft

On May 4, a tenant called and advised that some items have been stolen from his apartment. Officers arrived and went inside with the tenant. The tenant advised that he has a roommate and while he was at work the roommate. The roommate stepped out for a short while, leaving the door unlocked, then discovered items missing when he returned home. Among the missing items were a variety of electronics and a safe which contained birth certificates, social security cards, and cash. The safe was well hidden in the house and only a couple of people would have known about it, one being the roommate. The officer asked the roommate what he thought happened. The roommate said that “people are saying that someone watched me leave.” The roommate was not making any eye contact and answers to questions were oblique. The roommate told the officer that he was nervous because he actually left the apartment in the first place to go smoke weed. The officer advised that he was not there to investigate him smoking weed, just about the burglary. The roommate still seemed nervous. The roommate changed his story and advised that he was supposed to “hold” $400 worth of marijuana for a guy. He passed out at a party and the marijuana went missing so now he owes the guy $400. He allowed the guy or somebody else to come and take property from the house which belonged to the victim so that he would not owe the money anymore. The roommate was arrested and booked into Pierce County Jail for theft in the second degree.