Police Beat: Yelling at strangers, wrong way to hide drinking habit

Editor’s note: Compiled from reports to Tacoma Police.

Jan. 22: The fraud was too close to home: a grandson bilking his grandfather.

The 60-year-old Tacoma man called police and explained. Someone had opened a credit card account in his name. The man called the company to complain. The company arranged a three-way call with the party who opened the account.

The man heard the voice of his 23-year-old grandson on the line. The grandson had stayed with him a few months back, then moved out. Grandpa didn’t know where.

The older man asked the credit card company for the grandson’s phone number. The company wouldn’t release it. Grandpa called police.

An officer advised Grandpa to sign a notarized affidavit and turn it in to the company. The officer ran a background check on the son and found another case from December: The grandson was suspected of forging checks. He’d tried to cash them at a Tacoma bank and fled as a suspicious bank teller checked signatures that didn’t match.

The grandson’s whereabouts were unknown; the officer filed the report under fraud.

Jan. 22: The woman walked along the 1300 block of North Highlands Parkway, a little too close to the traffic. A police officer hailed her and asked what she was doing.

The woman looked to be about 50 years old. She wore a blue coat, a white hoodie and gray sweatpants. She said she’d been yelling at a speeding car and didn’t need help. She kept walking. About 10 minutes later, another call came from the same area. A 30-year-old man in the Highlands Golf Course parking lot flagged down an officer and complained about a strange woman.

The man drove a 2003 Audi A4, light blue. He said he’d been driving along Highlands Parkway and noticed a woman walking in the road. The man had slowed down and swerved to pass her before entering the parking lot.

As he got out of his car, he saw the woman standing behind him. She yelled at him. He tried to walk away but she followed him all over the lot. The man said he was calling police.

“I am the police!” the woman said. She walked to the rear of his car and kicked it, cracking a taillight, and walked away.

By the time officers arrived, the woman was gone. A search of the area came up empty.

Jan. 21: The Gig Harbor woman had a drinking problem, but she didn’t want anyone to know.

She stepped into a grocery store in the 6200 block of Sixth Avenue and bee-lined to the liquor. She knew her poison: Smirnoff Vanilla Vodka. She put the bottle in her cart and wheeled to the meat department.

A security officer watched. The woman took the bottle and placed it in her purse. She didn’t select any meat. She walked straight out of the store, leaving the cart behind. The security officer stopped her. She didn’t fight, and waited for police to arrive.

An officer asked her why she’d stolen the vodka. The woman said she didn’t want her husband to find out. He’d get mad if he knew she was buying liquor.

The officer handed the woman a citation for shoplifting and released her on her own recognizance.

Jan. 23: The 24-year-old man walked into a convenience store and asked for help. The bottom half of his face was a bloody mess.

Officers answered the call and met the man at the store in the 9500 block of South Steele Street. The man’s nose looked broken. Blood smeared his face, neck and arms. He said his wife had assaulted him.

They were arguing over money, he said. He wanted to call police, but his wife wouldn’t let him. Then he broke her cellphone, which really set her off. She started grabbing his hair, pushing him around. He pushed her away. She punched him in the face.

The man said he went outside and sat on the porch to wait for police. He figured his wife had already called them. While he waited, she came out and kicked him in the head, he said — so he walked to the store and asked for help.

The officer backtracked the story: the man wanted to call police, but then he broke his wife’s phone? The man said that was right.

What was the argument about again? Money, the man said. He wouldn’t say more, but he wanted to press charges.

Officers called a team of emergency medical technicians to treat the man’s wounds. He was taken to St. Clare Hospital in Lakewood.

The man lived at an apartment complex in the 1800 block of 98th Street Court South — outside city limits. Officers asked for an assist from the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department. Deputies rolled to the address and found the man’s wife cleaning bloodstains off the porch.

The woman was 22. She said she’d served her husband with divorce papers that day, along with eviction papers for the man’s father, a 46-year-old man who lived in the apartment.

She said her husband broke her phone and started attacking her. She said she punched him once, to defend herself. She wouldn’t be a victim.

An officer said it looked like the man had been punched at least three times — and what about the kick in the head? The woman denied kicking her husband, and insisted she’d punched him only once.

She carried a phone in her bathrobe pocket. It wasn’t broken. She said it was her husband’s phone. She found it in the couch cushions.

Officers interviewed the 46-year-old man and another witness, a 12-year-old girl. Both said the wife attacked the husband. The older man said the woman had been out of control lately, taking everyone’s belongings and haranguing the household. She’d waved the eviction papers and divorce papers. She’d gone after her husband, pulling his hair and punching him. The husband had broken the wife’s phone against the doorknob, the witnesses said. That sent the fight into orbit.

Officers arrested the woman on suspicion of second-degree assault. They told the husband to get a restraining order and gave him his phone.

Sean Robinson: 253-597-8486
sean.robinson@thenewstribune.com