May 29
Ex-Seattle Mayor Gets Bumped. Unit 1 was stopped at the traffic light at 305 and High School. Unit 2, which was stopped behind unit 1 and in which former Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels was a passenger, was rear-ended by unit 3, pushing it into unit 1. Units 1 and 2 sustained damage to their rear bumpers, and unit 3 sustained damage to its front bumper.
Extended Backup. The driver of unit 1 was backing out of her driveway on Northtown Loop when she backed into the front of unit 2, which was parked by the curb across the street.
May 27
Stuck Boat. The Coast Guard requested that the BIPD check on an occupied vessel on the east coast of Bainbridge that was possibly in distress. Two officers responded. The report was that the boater had a 25-foot sailboat run aground between Brackenwood and Fay Bainbridge. The man had climbed in a dinghy to free the sailboat. One of the officers arrived near Brackenwood and reported that the boat was two miles north of him. The other officer went to the beach access on Sunrise and could see the boat. The man was wearing a bright orange PFD and was on the sailboat. He had no sail out and was not listing. The tide was flooding after a .06 low 45 minutes earlier. The boat was floating, but the keel appeared to still be mired in the sand. Winds were moderate and it was daylight. The officer called the Coast Guard and reported that the boater was in no apparent distress.
De-Capped Car. At approximately 5:33 in the afternoon, a man called 911 to report malicious mischief to his vehicle, which had been parked in front of his residence on Madison. An officer arrived and contacted the man who said he had just purchased the vehicle and had been checking it regularly since there had been a number of undesirable people hanging around the apartment complex lately. He said that he had checked it around 10 p.m. the night before, and he was certain that all the caps had been there, but now the driver front and passenger rear ones were missing. One of the remaining caps was tight and one was loose. It was unclear to the officer whether they had fallen off or had been removed, as the man had reported that he had disturbed the brake dust around the driver’s side front wheel.
May 26
Stolen iPod, Mysterious Shoe Print. At approximately 6:48 p.m., Cencom advised that a woman had requested contact at her Whited Place residence regarding the theft of her iPod. An officer arrived and the woman told him that her iPod had been playing outside in her fenced backyard. Her backyard abuts the tennis courts at Bainbridge High School. The iPod classic had been positioned on an Apple dock that had been plugged into a wall socket. She had been gone for a couple of hours. When she returned, the dock had been thrown in the dirt, and the iPod was nowhere to be found. The officer was shown shoe prints that led from the area of the iPod across a leveled patch of dirt out toward the gate nearest Whited Place. The shoe prints were for a shoe approximately one-inch shorter than size 12 boots. They were mostly flat with thin radiating lines that appeared to cross perpendicularly. The officer noted a dime-sized circular protrusion on the heel area of the outer sole.
Busted Gate. A citizen called 911 to report that someone had damaged the picket gate that accesses the main door to his residence on Rolling Bay Walk. He explained that his residence is a summer home and that he is unable to occupy it as there is no power or water. He said he would have to replace the gate.
Stolen Lawn Mower. A man requested contact at his residence on Arrow Point Drive regarding the theft of a lawn mower. An officer arrived and spoke with the man. He said that he had borrowed a lawn mower from someone but that it was not working. The lawn mower had been stowed for several months next to the porch of his house, not visible from Arrow Point Drive. He said that the house across from his on Venice Loop is in foreclosure and for sale and the grass has not been cut for months. Yesterday, a company presumably hired by the bank owning the property had mowed the lawn. The man showed the officer the trail where he and his partner walk across the long grass toward where the mower was. It was apparent that a less-established path now led from where the mower had been to the recently mowed lot. The man had called the realtor in order to find out who did the lawn care. The officer was going to call as well if he did not hear from the man or the realtor.
Happy Reunion of the Three Drunk Men. Officers responded to a person yelling in the area of Madison and Wallace at 3:21 in the morning. The officers located a man near the intersection. He was very intoxicated and said that he and his brother and a friend had been drinking at The 122. Afterwards, they had been drinking at an unknown apartment in the area. He said that his brother was being held against his will in the apartment by Mexican males. Another man walked up to the officers. He also appeared very intoxicated. One officer went to the Eagle’s Nest apartments to try to locate the brother. The apartment that the second man had identified as the correct one appeared to be unoccupied, and no one answered the door. The officers were unable to locate the man. He was eventually located by one of the officers a couple of blocks south on Madison. He also appeared intoxicated. All three men were united, and they left the area on foot to catch the ferry to Seattle.
May 25
Backup into Cop. The driver of vehicle 2, a BIPD officer, was stopped behind vehicle 1 in the City Hall parking lot near Henshaw. The officer was preparing to exit the vehicle to speak with the driver of vehicle 1. Vehicle 1 began backing up, and the officer was unable to move his vehicle out of the way because another vehicle had stopped behind him. Vehicle 1 backed into vehicle 2’s push bars but left no damage. Vehicle 1 sustained damage to the left rear turn signal and the left side rear bumper. The driver of vehicle 1 said he did not see the police vehicle parked behind him.
Credit Card Fraud. An officer made contact with a Suquamish man at the BIPD station regarding fraud. The man said that he uses the Wells Fargo bank on Bainbridge. He said he had noticed strange debits and he went to Wells Fargo to ask questions. He showed the officer a copy of a statement showing a transaction made in the amount of $370.18 from” Jac Car Silverwater, AU.” On that same date, Wells Fargo had debited an International Fee in the amount of $11.10. There was also an unauthorized purchase in the amount of $604.85 made from “Chk Card Navarro E-Commerce, Miami, FL.” Wells Fargo had advised the man that the charge is pending and may not be allowed to go through. There was yet another unauthorized purchase in the amount of $377.69 from “Chk Card, Jay Car Electron Silverwater, AU.” Wells Fargo said that that charge is also pending and may not be allowed to go through. The teller had told the man that she has seen several other people reporting similar unauthorized transactions recently and that all of them had recently made a point of sale transaction at Safeway on Bainbridge. The man said that he too had done so. The man believed his account had been closed. The officer advised him to make sure it had. He also advised the man to contact the three major credit reporting agencies.
Taped Door Handles. An officer on foot patrol at about 1 a.m. at Bainbridge High School noticed the door handles of the 300 building had large pieces of clear strapping tape on them. The tape had been wrapped around both handles. It appeared to the officer as if someone had been trying to compromise the locking latch by inserting the tape ends into the doorframe. The tape would prevent the latch from catching fully, leaving the door unlocked. The project appeared to have been aborted as neither tape end was long enough. Also in front of the doors in the wagon wheels area was fresh graffiti written in chalk, reading “F**k it 2012.”
May 24
Missed the Red Light. Unit 1 was southbound on 305 at Day Road waiting to turn left onto Day. The driver of unit 2, northbound on 305, failed to notice that the light for northbound through traffic was red. Unit 2 failed to stop for the red light and struck unit 1 as that driver made a left-hand turn.
Forked. The driver of unit 1, a propane tanker, was southbound on Pleasant Beach Drive when a forklift that was parked in a parking spot ran into the side of his truck with its forks. The propane truck sustained damage to the driver’s side door, mirror, exhaust stack, and tank. The driver of the forklift said that he was parked and saw the tanker approaching. He tried to lift his forks out of the way of the truck but was unable to get them high enough. A flagger working at Lynwood Center Road and Pleasant Beach Drive said he saw the propane truck heading toward him when he heard the impact. He said that the truck was in its lane of travel and that the forklift forks appeared to be in the southbound lane.
Driving with a Suspended License but Without the Actual License. An officer saw a man known to have a warrant for driving with a suspended license driving eastbound on High School from Madison. The officer called another officer who confirmed the warrant. The first officer ran the plate of the vehicle. He stopped the man on Valley at Sunrise. The man had no ID, but the officer recognized him from prior contacts. The man said he didn’t know he had a warrant. The officer completed a citation form and he signed it.
Credit Card Fraud 2. A man called police to report that his credit card number had been used in Houston fraudulently. He said that on May 20 he had received a call from his credit card company saying that his Visa card had been used in a Houston Walmart and they had cancelled the sale. The man said that he had just used the card several hours earlier at the Poulsbo Walmart and he still had it with him. Two charges were attempted, one for $82 which went through and one for $242 which was cancelled by Visa Security. He had been reimbursed for the $82, and Visa had cancelled his account. He said that this was the third time this year that his credit cards have been compromised.
May 23
Grownups Fight at Woodward. At approximately 7:49 p.m., Bainbridge units responded to the north parking lot of Woodward Middle School. There had been a fight there between an estranged wife and the husband’s girlfriend. All parties were separated and standing by for law enforcement. Upon arrival, an officer contacted the wife, who said that she and her husband were separated and in the process of getting a divorce. They have two boys and are sharing custody. The boys were with their father today and he had taken them to a school event. The wife was supposed to take custody of them after the event. The wife said she had been waiting for her husband to get the car seats from him. One boy was at her vehicle, and one boy was waiting by her husband’s truck. The wife’s mother was in her vehicle.
One of the boys was acting out, and the wife went into the school briefly to collect herself. When she came out, her husband’s girlfriend was standing by his truck. The two vehicles were parked about 50 feet apart in different rows of the lot. The wife said that, as she exited the school, the girlfriend shouted at her, asking if she was going to get the car seats. The wife began walking toward the girlfriend. The wife said that the girlfriend then began walking toward her. She said she ran right into the girlfriend. The officer asked her if the girlfriend had been blocking her way, and she said, “No. I could have walked around her.” The wife said that the girlfriend then began pulling her hair and struck her on the head and back. The wife refused aid, and the officer saw no injuries.
The wife’s mother had then come over and the husband had come over too, and the two women separated, retreating to their respective vehicles. The officer asked the mother if she had seen her daughter walk into the girlfriend, and she said, “No.” She said she had heard shouting and looked up to see the fight in progress and the girlfriend pulling her daughter’s hair. She had then gone over to separate the women. Two other officers had spoken with the husband and the girlfriend. Their stories were the same. The officer recontacted the wife and said that the only reason he was not going to arrest her was that she had her children with her. He said that if there were another incident where she initiated contact, she would be arrested. The officer also told her the report was being forwarded to the prosecutor for review. The officer suggested she and her husband get an extra set of car seats to avoid such exchanges in the future.
Struck Deer. A driver northbound on 305 hit a deer that ran out in front of her. The deer was killed. The front end of the vehicle was heavily damaged.
Telephone Harassment. A woman came into the station to report telephone harassment. She explained that her father-in-law owns a condominium in Mexico. A few week’s ago his dog got into a fight with another dog at the condominium complex. Since the fight, the owner of the other dog had been calling her at her residence, demanding payment for a $350 vet bill. The woman thought that the man had obtained her husband’s name off the Internet and had been able to associate her father-in-law with her husband. She said that the man had called her six times so far that day starting at 6:30 a.m. She said his language had been growing more colorful and that he had hiccuped during one of his rants. She thinks he might be intoxicated when he calls. The woman gave an officer the number that the man was calling from. The officer looked up the number and found that it was a cell phone registered out of San Diego County. The officer explained that she could change her home phone number but that serving an antiharassment order in Mexico might be difficult. She requested that the officer call the man and explain to him that a police report had been filed for telephone harassment. The officer said that might add to his rage. The woman requested that he do it nonetheless. The officer did so, leaving a message on the man’s cell phone with the case number.
Flattened Tire. A resident reported damage to her vehicle on Madison. The woman explained to an officer on scene that she has been having problems with a neighbor. She said that the neighbor has people at her apartment all hours of the day and night. The woman said that last week she had called police because someone was banging on the neighbor’s door in the early hours of the morning. She said that today just before she called 911 a neighbor had stopped by to tell her that she had a flat tire. The officer observed that the right front tire of the vehicle was flat. The officer checked the sidewall but found no evidence of it having been cut. AAA was en route to fix the tire. The woman said she wanted to document the incident in case the tire was an act of malice in retaliation for her having called the police. She said she would contact police with information about the tire once AAA had assessed it.
May 22
Internet Fraud from Bainbridge. The BIPD received an Internet fraud investigation report referred by the Carver County, Minnesota, Sheriff’s Office. The report indicated that a series of fraudulent Internet purchases by unknown persons were initiated from a computer with an IP address registered to a Qwest account on Bainbridge Island. The unauthorized purchases had been made via a Cabela’s credit card owned by a man in Waconia, Minnesota. The purchased items were then shipped to an address in Maryland. The residence in Maryland is occupied by the two suspects named in the report.
May 21
Driver Loses Control. Vehicle 1 was exiting a private parking lot onto Bjune. The driver suffered some type of medical condition and was unable to control his vehicle, which rolled straight across the roadway, bumping into a utility pole. The driver was transported to the hospital by an aid unit.
