Community Police & Fire

Gig Harbor Police Blotter: Wife hit Tesla? That’s too bad, man tells officer

Editor’s note: The Blotter is written based on information provided by Gig Harbor Police and Gig Harbor Fire & Medic One.

A 76-year-old man whose wife apparently collided with a Tesla in a parking lot, then left without providing insurance information, told an officer “that’s too (expletive) bad.”

The owner of the Tesla asked officers to come to the parking lot to investigate a hit and run collision earlier this week. Nobody was injured.

The Tesla’s dash camera showed the license plate of the Subaru that caused the collision while its driver was trying to park.

The officer located an address for the registered owner of the Subaru and went to his house. The 76-year-old man told the officer that his 75-year-old wife had been driving the car. “She nudged a Tesla, and now they’re coming down on grandma,” he told the officer, adding another f-bomb for emphasis.

The officer estimated the collision caused about $2,000 in damage to the Tesla. The 76-year-old declared “I’m not gonna pursue this any further, this is preposterous,” and asked the officer to leave. He complied, and forwarded a report on the incident to city prosecutors.

Impala suspected in several incidents flees

A black Chevrolet Impala already associated with several other criminal incidents around Pierce County fled from a Gig Harbor officer at Kohl’s on May 29.

The officer noticed the car parked illegally in a handicapped space near Kohl’s around 7:30 p.m. and checked on its license plate. Records showed the car was involved in a theft in early May in Puyallup in which the driver nearly ran over witnesses. It was also associated with an incident May 27 in which the male driver threatened to kill a female passenger.

The Impala’s windows were heavily tinted and the officer couldn’t tell if the same suspects were inside. While the officer was watching, the Impala started backing out of its parking spot. The officer used the public address speaker on his cruiser to tell the driver he should wait for his partner inside the store before fleeing.

This prompted the driver to roll down his window and curse at the officer, allowing the officer to identify the driver as the same person involved in the prior incidents.

The car fled from the officer’s attempts to pull it over, blowing through stop signs and red lights in the process. The officer stopped the pursuit and returned to the store, where he saw the driver’s partner walking forlornly on Point Fosdick Drive.

Walkie-talkie mixup leads to shoving

A miscommunication over walkie-talkies at a senior care facility on Wagner Way led to a possible assault around noon on May 28.

A caregiver asked an officer to come to the facility, reporting that a coworker had assaulted her. Apparently the coworker misunderstood who was saying what during walkie-talkie cross-chatter about who was covering which person’s break. She grew angry over what she thought the victim said and shoved her, causing a supervisor to step in and separate the two.

A report was forwarded to the city prosecutor for review.