Community Police & Fire
Gig Harbor Police Blotter: Shoplifting suspect injures self while fleeing
Editor’s note: The Police Blotter is written based on information in Gig Harbor Police and Pierce County Sheriff’s Office reports.
Gig Harbor officers chased down two suspected shoplifters at the Borgen Boulevard Home Depot on July 3. One of the suspects had to be taken to the hospital after injuring his leg while trying to jump a fence.
Officers patrolling the area were alerted to the possible shoplifters around 7 p.m. The suspects suspiciously walked in the opposite direction upon seeing a police car. They ran when officers tried to contact them.
One suspect stopped after a short chase, but the other tried to jump over a 6-foot fence and fell. He told officers he believed he had broken his leg.
He later told Gig Harbor Fire & Medic One medics that he went to Home Depot to steal tools.
Officers found two new power tools dropped along the route the suspects ran. They were unable to definitively prove the suspects had taken them, absent surveillance footage or witnesses. Both suspects were trespassed from the store, meaning they could be arrested on suspicion of burglary if they return to the store.
Lots of documents, no proof of ownership
An officer noticed expired license tabs on a vehicle driving on Highway 16 near Wollochet Drive around 7 p.m. July 1. The officer pulled over the vehicle, a silver Acura, after it exited the freeway at Burnham Drive.
The driver, a 32-year-old Tacoma man, produced several documents, none of which actually showed that he owned the car. The documents included a vehicle title that wasn’t in his name; an old bill of sale from a previous owner; a handwritten bill of sale showing an unrelated person buying a similar vehicle, but which was not valid since it listed no vehicle identification number.
The driver told the officer that he couldn’t afford to get the vehicle transferred into his name. The Tacoma man was the subject of several outstanding misdemeanor warrants, none of which the jail would book him for. He also didn’t have proof of insurance and was driving while his license was suspended (several of the warrants were for the same offense).
The officer concluded that it was unsafe for the Tacoma man to continue driving the vehicle and had it impounded. The driver was issued a citation and given a court date.
One vehicle stolen, another recovered
An officer responding to a report of a stolen vehicle recovered another stolen vehicle at the same time.
The owner of a 1970 Ford Mustang reported the car stolen around 9 p.m. on July 1. The officer who responded to take the report noticed a suspicious red 2001 Ford F-350 parked next to where the Mustang had been stolen.
The ignition of the pickup had clearly been tampered with, and a screwdriver sitting in the center console of the truck appeared to have used to start it. When the officer checked the plate, it turned out to have been stolen from Port Orchard.
The owner of the stolen mustang reported having seen a young man, whom he described as acting suspiciously, in the vicinity of the F-350 earlier.
Later that evening, someone reported a similar Mustang being driven recklessly at the Harborview Drive-Stinson Avenue roundabout.
Police entered the Mustang as stolen and impounded the F-350 until its rightful owner could get it.
Thieves crash flatbed through business fence
Unknown suspects stole a flatbed truck from a business on 66th Avenue and crashed it through a fence while escaping, according to the Pierce County Sheriff’s Office.
Employees called a deputy to the business the evening of July 2. Suspects had cut a hole through the business’s exterior fence, stolen a battery from a pickup parked there and used the battery to start the flatbed.
They crashed the truck through the gate and fled. The business reported a similar truck stolen in February.