Editor’s note: Compiled from reports to Tacoma police.
Dec. 4: The man preferred pizza delivered by women. He greeted them with a special offer.
He’d been calling several times a night, enough to annoy the manager of a Tacoma pizza delivery store, who asked police to intervene.
The customer, a 40-year-old man, lived in a University Place apartment in the 6200 block of Lakewood Drive.
Delivery drivers arriving at the man’s door saw him standing at the front window, his head peeking from behind a curtain. Lit from the rear, his silhouette looked nude.
He answered the door wearing nothing but skin-tight underwear. To female drivers, he offered an invitation.
“He asks each time if they would like to come in ‘to see a free lingerie show,’” the police report stated.
The man had been told no more pizzas would be delivered, but he kept calling, the manager said.
A Tacoma officer, venturing outside city limits, knocked on the door of the man’s apartment. There was no answer.
Elderly man loses $7,000 to scam artist
Dec. 5: The 82-year-old Tacoma man said the phone call sounded official.
It came a few days earlier, the man said. The voice on the other end claimed to be a Canadian police officer. The man’s grandson was being held on a narcotics charge. The grandson had been stopped in a car with four other people, and police had found drugs in the car.
If Grandpa wanted to bail the boy out, he’d have to wire $7,000 through Western Union.
Grandpa wired the money. He gradually realized he’d been scammed. He called Western Union. No good.
“He knows he’s out the money, and stated it wasn’t really a big deal, but he wanted to let police know,” the report stated.
Woman lands in jail after odd behavior
Dec. 7: The woman pointed to a nearby man and called him her husband, but the man said he wasn’t. Asked why she’d thrown hot coffee and other objects, she said she hadn’t.
Police sifted the confusing account after responding to a report of an assault during an addiction-recovery meeting in the 1000 block of South 11th Street.
Officers found several angry witnesses. They pointed to a 55-year-old woman sitting nearby. The witnesses said the woman had exposed herself and thrown rocks and hot coffee in someone’s face. Some of it spilled on an 11-year-old girl.
The woman said she didn’t know why everyone was so mad. When police questioned her, she pointed to one of the witnesses.
“My husband is a Marine and he came home today. That’s him over there,” she said.
They asked her about throwing the coffee.
“What coffee?” the woman said.
The man she’d pointed out told police he wasn’t her husband.
The woman “began rambling about nonsensical subjects,” the report states.
She wore loose clothing. Officers guessed that her pants had slipped down in the midst of a rant. She spoke erratically, up and down.
Guessing that she was intoxicated or ill, officers booked her into the jail on suspicion of assault, rather than risk a violent incident at a recovery center.
Car prowlers active during holiday season
Spokesman Mark Fulghum, skimming through a week’s worth of police reports, couldn’t help noticing the number of car prowls.
Was it higher than usual? He couldn’t say, but it seemed that way: a holiday uptick, shoppers running fast errands, telling themselves they’ll only be a minute, leaving stuff in front seats, luring hoods looking for a quick score.
He urged drivers to be wary. Maybe it’s just a gym bag, full of workout gear and nothing else. Crooks don’t care. The next bag could hold a cellphone or a wallet. The smash-and-grab takes a rock and five seconds. Result: a loss, dim prospects for recovery and a seat full of broken glass.
“Either way, you’re out a window and whatever else was in that bag,” he said. “Don’t leave things in the car that can be seen from outside.”
Sean Robinson: 253-597-8486
sean.robinson@thenewstribune.com
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