All suspects in the police blotter are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
DUI COLLISION: At 11:57 p.m. April 21, two officers responded a vehicle that had collided with a power pole on Church Lake Drive. The driver was sitting in a ditch near a vehicle being comforted by a nearby resident who had heard the crash. The driver told police she was lost on her way home to Tacoma and she did not know how she left the roadway. Officers noticed her speech was slurred and her eyes were bloodshot. An officer asked her if she had been drinking, and she said she had. The officer asked her if she would submit to field sobriety tests and she responded that she didn’t need to, and said she was drunk. She was placed under arrest for DUI. Back at the station for processing, she refused to give breath samples. She was cited for driving under the influence and given a notice of infraction for improper lane useage before being released to her husband.
FELONY SHOPLIFTING: At 7:58 p.m. April 22, an officer was dispatched to Fred Meyer Jewelers, where an employee reported a man had stolen two tennis bracelets valued at $7,100 before fleeing the store. The man had come in, asking to see two tennis bracelets. Per store policy, the employee did not hand them to the man, but modeled them against her own wrist. When she brought out the second bracelet, he reached over the counter and grabbed both before fleeing. Loss Prevention was not available at the time, but they informed the employee there had been thefts at University Place and Federal Way store locations by a man matching the suspect’s description. Six days later, on April 28, another officer contacted Puyallup Police in regard to a vehicle stop related to a theft investigation. The suspect, who matched the description from the earlier thefts, had been detained following a jewelry theft at the Puyallup Fred Meyer. A Bonney Lake Fred Meyer loss prevention officer provided Bonney Lake police with still images of the suspect, who matched the vehicle passenger Puyallup Police had in custody. The Bonney Lake Fred Meyer Jewelers employee identified the suspect in a photo montage. In a later interview in a Puyallup Jail holding cell, the suspect was told he would be booked into Pierce County Jail for the listed charges of theft. He said he was willing to cooperate, but would not provide names of accomplices. He said he stole to support his Percocet addiction. It was an unsolicited statement and the officer told him that, because he had invoked his right to counsel, he should provide any information about the crimes through his attorney. He was booked into Pierce County Jail. The Bonney Lake officer contacted a Fred Meyer loss prevention officer with knowledge of the Puyallup store incident. She reported the suspect had come in asking about a tennis bracelet for his sick girlfriend. The employee had knowledge of the recent pattern of thefts and refused to show him any bracelets. He then entered the electronics section and asked employees about iPads, but left the store without any merchandise.
BURGLARY: At 10 a.m. April 23, an officer was contacted by a maintenance man who reported damage to a foreclosed South Vista Drive East home he had been hired to work on. Earlier in the day, the man had gone to the residence and discovered unknown subjects had entered the home and done damage to the interior. The two followed up at the residence, where the man showed an officer four holes in the sheetrock walls and a kitchen cabinet that had been pulled off the wall and destroyed. A partially hidden closet in the master bedroom had apparently been used for a marijuana grow operation.
WARRANT: At 8:43 p.m. April 27, an officer stopped a helmet-less man traveling 199th Avenue East on a motorcycle. The man stated he was not aware a helmet was required. A records check confirmed a Bonney Lake warrant for theft. The man was arrested. A search of his pockets turned up small bags of a white rock-like substance the officer recognized as methamphetamine. The substance was field tested and turned up positive for methamphetamine. Further search turned up drug paraphernalia: glass pipes containing burned residue. The man was transported to Pierce County Jail, where he was booked on charges of unlawful possession of a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia. The drugs were placed into evidence.
HIT AND RUN: At 7 p.m. April 29, officers were dispatched to a hit and run collision at the intersection of state Route 410 East and 192nd Avenue East. A sedan traveling on the highway had run a red light and was struck by a driver traveling 192nd. The causing driver met with an officer stationed in the Grocery Outlet parking lot. His son had suffered several lacerations to his face in the crash, and the officer called medical aid to the scene. Medics transported him to Mary Bridge Hospital for further treatment. The man said he had not seen the light turn red due to the glare from the setting sun. He had attempted to brake to avoid a collision, but was ultimately hit, spinning the car around. He said he knew his son had been injured immediately, and he drove around in search of a safe place to check on his welfare. Three witnesses confirmed the sedan had run through a red light, and advised they had followed it after they saw it cause the crash. One witness advised he saw the driver throw a small object — which turned out to be a baggie of marijuana — into the bushes before approaching the officer. When confronted about it, the driver said he had panicked and forgot it was now legal. He denied being under the influence of marijuana, and he did not exhibit any signs of being impaired. The officer advised the driver that since his car came to rest off the roadway, he should not have relocated. He was issued a citation for hit and run and a notice of infraction for collision related to failing to stop at a traffic signal.
