Community Police & Fire

Gig Harbor Police Blotter | Assault charge follows interrupted attempt to steal a car

Editor’s note: The Blotter is written based on information provided by Gig Harbor Police , Gig Harbor Fire & Medic One and the Pierce County Sheriff’s Office.

Gig Harbor Police arrested a 28-year-old Yakima man after he swung a fire extinguisher at someone who interrupted his apparent attempt to steal a car.

A Soundview Drive family found the man inside their car on the morning of Nov. 10. When they spoke with him, he asked them to hand over the keys to their Tesla.

The family tried to chase the suspect away. He responded by grabbing a fire extinguisher out of the car and swinging it at them.

Officers tracked the suspect down around 11:30 a.m. on the Olympic Drive overpass. He had previous felony convictions for first degree robbery and vehicle theft. They booked him into the Pierce County Jail on suspicion of aggravated assault.

Police learned that the suspect was also involved in a chase of a stolen vehicle that ended when officers ran the car off the road in Purdy. The suspect they apprehended after that chase told police he got the car from the 28-year-old Yakima man.

Drunk driver with an attitude gets trip to jail

A 23-year-old Gig Harbor man tried to head-butt a Gig Harbor police officer after being arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence on Nov. 27.

Officers pulled the man over after seeing him swerve while driving on Borgen Boulevard without his lights on at about 9:30 p.m. He was relatively cooperative during the traffic stop, admitting to consuming “quite a few drinks” earlier.

But while an officer reported that the suspect threatened and cursed him on the drive back to the Police Department. Though officers initially planned to cite and release the suspect, they decided to take him to the Kitsap County Jail instead.

When officers tried to take him to a police car for the trip to Port Orchard, he jerked away from them and tried to head-butt one. The officers tackled him to the floor and eventually got him in a car for the drive to jail.

More car thefts

At least two people reported their cars stolen from the parking lot of the Galaxy Theatre in Uptown on the evening of Nov. 26. Two other people said their cars were broken into.

Both the stolen vehicles were Kias — a 2017 Sportage and a 2019 Optima. Officers recovered the Sportage later that same night in Gig Harbor North.

Separately, a Door Dash driver reported his Chevy Cruze stolen Nov. 25 outside a restaurant on Olympic Drive. The driver told officers he left the car running while he ran into the restaurant to pick up an order for delivery.

Apparently the order took long enough for someone to notice an unoccupied, idling vehicle in the parking lot and drive away in it.

He said there was nothing of value inside the car “except for five rolls of marijuana.”

Nobody interested in vehicle fire

Gig Harbor Fire and Medic One put out a fire in an apparently stolen Ford pickup truck early on the morning of Nov. 22 on Shirley Avenue.

Gig Harbor police responded to a report of a vehicle fire around 2 a.m. The truck had been reported stolen at gunpoint in Seattle.

After firefighters extinguished the flames, local police contacted Seattle Police to see if they wanted to investigate. They declined.

The Pierce County Fire Marshal’s Office also declined to investigate it as an arson, since there were no witnesses and Seattle Police had shown no interest. The vehicle was impounded by a towing company.

Theft of water

Gig Harbor Police cited a 55-year-old woman for stealing water from a home on Rosedale Street on Nov. 15.

A homeowner, who was not home at the time, reported that his video cameras showed the woman using his hose to fill up a blue jug at least twice that day. The homeowner later located the suspect in a van on Harborview Drive. She told officers she didn’t think taking water from the home was a crime.