Police Beat: His memory's fading, not his feelings for his 'wife'

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

Feb. 20: The romance ended years before, but Dad forgot again. He rang his lover’s bell.

No answer. He tried one key and then another. They didn’t fit.

Dad was 74. His ex-girlfriend, listening on the other side of the door, was 70. She lived in the 6800 block of North 13th Street. She picked up the phone.

The radio call came through as a stalking complaint, ongoing problem. Suspect owned guns. No threats.

Two officers rolled to the spot. They found Dad on the doorstep. He spoke slowly and his hearing was bad.

He said he was visiting his wife and checking the Social Security box they shared. He didn’t live here, he said – but his wife did. He thought he had a key – she gave it to him – but it wasn’t working.

Inside the house, his ex was shaking. She told officers she dated the man for a while, but they broke up three years back. The man didn’t remember. He talked as if they were married, which never happened.

He’d dropped a valentine through her door a week earlier. Later that night, he called her every five minutes, starting at 1:30 a.m. She didn’t answer. He drove past her house at 2:30 a.m. He didn’t understand why she wouldn’t talk to him.

Dad had guns. Ex said he’d never threatened, but she was beginning to think he might break a window – or worse, shoot through it.

Ex said she’d called the man’s daughter and explained. The daughter suggested getting a restraining order. Officers endorsed that advice.

The woman hesitated. She wanted treatment for the man, not jail.

One officer called the daughter. The other told Dad he couldn’t come to this house anymore.

Dad didn’t understand. He owned property in Montana with his wife. They were married.

The daughter arrived and told officers about her father’s guns. Dad’s memory was fading, she said. He was unpredictable. Lately, he always talked about his ex, but he called her his wife.

Officers took Dad home. They pulled a pump-action shotgun out of his closet, and a silver .38-caliber Colt Mustang out of his dresser drawer. He said he didn’t have any more guns.

Officers told him he couldn’t go to that house anymore.

He said he understood.

Feb. 20: Casino cash won’t buy a stack of pancakes.

The 38-year-old Tacoma woman thought that was bogus. Officers found her in the parking lot of a restaurant in the 7400 block of South Hosmer Street, shortly before 11 p.m.

Officers could tell the woman was smashed. She reeled and slurred. She hid a bottle of vodka under a nearby car. Officers spotted it swiftly.

The restaurant manager said the woman tried to leave without paying. The woman said she tried to pay with scrip from the Emerald Queen Casino, but the restaurant wouldn’t take it. She wanted the officers to take her home so she could get money and pay her bill.

She said she and several friends from her federal probation work crew stopped at the casino earlier and got kicked out. Two men who came with the woman said she boasted about paying for everyone’s meal then backed out. The other two paid their share; she didn’t.

The woman said she wasn’t supposed to drink. That violated the terms of her probation (she’d been convicted in 2009 for bank fraud and identity theft, in a scheme that involved stolen mail, according to court records.)

The Tacoma officers tried to reach a federal probation officer. No luck. They told the woman she was banned from the restaurant for a year and cited her for third-degree theft.

Feb. 20: The scam was an easy lie: See an online ad, copy an online ad.

A Tacoma property manager spotted the ruse after a strange phone call. A new client bought a home in the 1100 block of A Street and hired the company to manage it.

The manager listed the property for rent on Craigslist. She planted a sign in the front yard – $975 a month.

The ad got a quick bite. A woman called and asked about renting, but she was confused. The Craigslist ad said rent was $700 a month, but the yard sign said $975.

The manager called police; by the time officers arrived, she’d figured it out.

She checked the online ads and found two of them. The second ad listed the lower rental rate. The contact information looked fishy.

The contact information linked to the previous property owner. Someone was trying to con prospective renters into forking over a month’s rent plus a deposit.

Officers filed the report as a possible fraud.

Feb. 21: The shoplifters denied nothing. Both were women. One was 38, the other 57. They strolled into a thrift store in the 3100 block of South 38th Street and headed for the menswear section.

The older woman picked out two pairs of pants, a belt and a sweater, handing it all to the younger woman, who stuffed the goods into a bulky brown purse.

The women walked outside. A security officer stopped the younger of the two. The older woman waited outside in a white pickup truck.

Police officers arrived and spoke to the younger woman. She admitted taking the stuff. She said she had no money. She said the older woman asked her to help steal some pants for a boyfriend.

Outside, the older woman said she knew the younger woman, but didn’t know she was going to steal anything. She said she told the younger woman not to do it.

Officers brought the two women together and asked again what happened. The two women looked at each other and shrugged. The younger woman spoke up. She said they were both broke, and so were their boyfriends.

“We thought we’d come here and snag a couple pairs of jeans,” she said. “We knew we were doing wrong.”

Officers cited both women for third-degree theft and banned them from the store for two years.

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