Community Police & Fire
Gig Harbor Police Blotter | Police investigate incident involving adults at girls basketball game
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 responded to a reported assault at Gig Harbor High School following a girls basketball game between the Tides and the Peninsula Seahawks on Tuesday, Feb. 4.
Nobody was injured in the incident and police could not immediately identify a suspect. No students were involved.
Police responded to the school at 8:43 p.m. Tuesday. A woman told officers that another woman approached her in the school, “shoulder-checked” her and made a comment. The victim said she did not know the other woman.
After that initial contact, the suspect left the school. But she came back to use the bathroom, and the victim followed her in, trying to take a photo of her.
The suspect shoved the other woman’s head into the wall, then left the building again, according to the Gig Harbor police report.
Gig Harbor Police Chief Kelly Busey said his department is still investigating the incident. No other witnesses saw it.
Peninsula School District spokeswoman Danielle Chastaine said the district can’t comment on the specifics of an ongoing investigation. She added that “disruptive behavior at school events will not be tolerated. We’re reviewing our security protocols and will take appropriate action to prevent similar incidents in the future.”
Robbery suspect likely was in mental health crisis
Gig Harbor police arrested a 27-year-old woman following an attempted bank robbery on the morning of Jan. 31. The woman “was likely suffering from a severe mental health crisis during the event,” the department wrote on social media.
The incident occurred at about 10:20 a.m. that day at a bank on Stinson Avenue. Officers arrived on scene within two minutes and found the woman still in the lobby.
Officers booked her into the Pierce County Jail, though “we are also working with mental health professionals to ensure that her mental health needs are addressed and brought to the attention of the court.”
New trends in shoplifting
Shoplifters go to great lengths to get away with stealing from local stores. Some examples from Gig Harbor Police reports in December:
At a hardware store on Point Fosdick Drive on Dec. 17, two people used a self check-out station to pay for some items while concealing others. One of the two hid several smaller items inside a plastic bin — paying for the bin but not what was inside. They walked away with about $700 worth of merchandise.
On Dec. 19 at a department store on Burnham Drive, officers apprehended a woman who put jewelry in her bra to hide it from store security. She was also carrying a magnetic device intended to defeat store security measures.
And on Dec. 21, also at a store on Burnham Drive, an officer arrested a woman who tried to steal 13 items worth about $200. She tried to hide unpaid merchandise in her reusable grocery bag, using other reusable bags to conceal it.