He said the set of brass knuckles was a belt buckle. Gig Harbor police weren’t fooled
Editor’s note: This blotter is compiled from recent Gig Harbor police and Gig Harbor Fire & Medic One reports.
Gig Harbor police got a report March 29 from a man who said his 74-year-old mother had been scammed out of more than $20,000 since August.
She sent a $5,500 check to Florida, more than $10,000 in electronic gift cards and gave $6,500 in cash to someone in Tacoma.
Someone called her in August to say she’d won $18.5 million through Publishers Clearing House, but that she needed to send a cashier’s check for taxes.
One of the alleged scammers had weekly contact with her and told her not to tell her son.
The son reported the 74-year-old has cognitive trouble and that she lost his father last year. The scammer learned a great deal about the family’s situation, the son said, including the fact that his mother was mourning.
Now she has $20,000 in credit card debt and less than $1,200 in her account, the son reported. A detective has reached out to a prosecutor.
Shoplifted Segway, Legos and $6K in beauty supplies
A Segway, Lego blocks and expensive beauty supplies made for some unusual shoplifting incidents recently.
First, a man sneaked into the Costco at 10990 Harbor Hill Dr. on March 25 without showing a membership card. It was when he put a Segway scooter on a cart and tried to leave through an emergency exit that he came to the attention of store employees. He abandoned the Segway and fled in a vehicle.
Then police got a report of shoplifting April 4 at Ulta Beauty in the 5500 block of Olympic Drive. Employees said four shoplifters stole $6,000 in cosmetics and fragrances in about a minute and fled. Police are investigating.
The next day a suspect took 27 boxes of Lego blocks worth $1,500 from the Target at 11400 51st Ave. The shoplifter put the Legos in a cart, left without paying and fled in a waiting vehicle.
Brass knuckle belt buckle seizure
A woman saw her parents’ stolen truck and started following it March 31 near 51st Avenue and Borgen Boulevard.
The truck parked at a department store in the 11400 block of 51st Avenue. A man and woman got out and went inside with a dog on a leash.
Police detained the woman as she left. She said she didn’t know the truck was stolen.
Then investigators spoke with the man in the store, who had a pit bull with him.
Officers noted he had about $400 worth of merchandise in his basket but wasn’t carrying anything with him to pay for it.
He did have a set of brass knuckles with him. Officers had an issue with that.
The man said it was just a belt buckle, but that didn’t make sense to police. He wasn’t wearing a belt with his coveralls at the time.
He also had a chainsaw multi-tool in his pocket, with a flat head screwdriver that he later allegedly said was how he started the stolen truck.
He traded someone $2,500 in methamphetamine for the vehicle, he allegedly told police. The locks on the truck were all punched.
Officers took the man to the Pierce County Jail and confiscated the brass knuckles and multi-tool. They released the woman at the scene with the dog.
Snapchat dab pen purchase ends in school suspension
A woman reported that someone contacted her son via social media to sell him drugs. The teenager had been caught with a cannabis dab pen March 18 at Peninsula High School and was suspended.
He said he bought it from someone he met on Snapchat. Mom took screenshots, which she shared with the school and police.
Security check leads to fentanyl seizure
An officer responded to a clothing store April 14 at 5500 Olympic Dr. for a security check. The officer approached a man at the checkout counter and saw a bag of pills that looked like fentanyl.
The man put the pills in a pocket and said it was marijuana but handed them to the officer when asked.
The officer said drugs are still illegal. The man yelled that he hadn’t done anything wrong and couldn’t be detained.
When the officer took him outside, the man said he was just supporting the Gig Harbor economy, that he was being detained illegally, and that he planned to contact the governor.
The fentanyl is for his back pain, he said. Police took the pills to the agency’s property room to be destroyed.
The officer gave the man a referral card with information about drug treatment and the man walked to a nearby pizza place.
The officer checked out a vehicle allegedly associated with the man and saw drug paraphernalia, fentanyl residue, three catalytic converters and reciprocating saw inside.
Residents shelter in place after crew hits gas line
A landscaping crew hit a natural gas line about 1:30 p.m. April 2 at 49th Street Northwest and 62nd Avenue Northwest. Firefighters responded and called Puget Sound Energy workers to the scene. Meanwhile, firefighters closed the road and told nearby residents to shelter in place until PSE workers were able to clamp the line.
This story was originally published April 25, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
