Teenagers used straws to spit bubble tea tapioca at him. He wants to press charges
Editor’s Note: This blotter is complied from recent Gig Harbor police reports.
They stole over $13,000 in 2 days
On Dec. 29 the manager at Legacy Communications at 8102 Skansie Ave. reported two recent burglaries.
On Dec. 27 security footage showed two suspects arrive on the property just before 4 a.m. They looked around and then stole $3,000 worth of “rescue climbing gear” that was sitting in the back of a work truck, according to the report.
The report said then on Dec. 29 around 3:30 a.m., another suspect arrived on the property. The manager believes it to be one of the same suspects from Dec. 27, he told officers.
This suspect stole “a length of wire from a spool of hybrid wire valued at $8,200 ruining the spool,” the report said.
The security camera does not have night vision, which made it difficult to make out the suspects, the manager told police.
The manager believes the suspects entered from the southwest corner of the property from a nearby church, because he found part of the security fence cut and cameras caught them walking from that direction.
Teenagers caught with three cases of alcohol behind grocery store
Around 2:30 a.m. on Dec. 23 two officers drove to a grocery store at 11400 51st. Ave. NW after employees reported a suspicious red vehicle parked out back.
Officers found a group of four minors drinking outside of a “red sedan,” according to the report.
“When the subjects saw us arrive, they appeared to be trying to get back into the vehicle hastily in what appeared to be an attempt to flee,” one officer wrote.
Officers told them to stop.
When officers approached the car the group was trying to hide bottles of alcohol. The officers asked them to get out of the car and sit on the curb.
One of the officers saw what appeared to be a hand gun, but was later discovered to be a pellet gun, on the car floor. There were also “nitrile gloves, nylon gloves, and numerous pieces of old jewelry,” the officer wrote.
The officer also noted one of the subjects was wearing a ski mask.
There was a 15-year-old girl and three boys ages 16, 18, and 19, according to the police report.
The 18-year-old boy was holding a can of Twisted Tea. The rest of the 12 pack was in the car. Officers let him know he was under arrest and handcuffed him.
The 15-year-old girl was trying to go on her phone, which officers took. She tried to get up and go get her phone from where officers set it down. Officers decided to place her in handcuffs, which upset the 19-year-old boy who became “verbally aggressive,” the report said.
Officers decided to place all of them in handcuffs.
Officers told them “the vehicle would be impounded because neither of them had a valid driver’s license, and due to them being juveniles it would be difficult to determine their alcohol level without questioning,” according to the report.
After the group of four gave permission for officers to look in the car, they found two more cases of Twisted Tea in the trunk.
Two of the boys were brothers. When they called their mother, she said she couldn’t pick them up because they had her car.
The 15-year-old told officers she didn’t know her mom’s phone number or address. One of the officers looked it up. While speaking with the 15-year-old, officers noticed she had a “clear baggie with white powdery substance attached to a necklace around her neck,” the report said.
The 15-year-old told officers she didn’t know what it was, and officers booked it as “property for destruction.”
They drove her to her mother’s house, which was nearby. The mother told officers her daughter must have “snuck out.”
A third officer gave the three boys a ride back to Tacoma. The 19-year-old was issued a criminal citation for being a minor in possession or alcohol, for the open can of Twisted Tea.
Officers then learned the 15-year-old girl left her house again to go look for her phone at the store, which officers forgot to return to her.
Officers retraced their drive from the store to the home and found the phone in the road. They returned it to the mother.
Teens hit pedestrians with bubble tea tapioca
On Dec. 22 officers got a call about a group of teenagers blowing something like “spit wads or pebbles” at pedestrians near downtown Gig Harbor.
The person who called it in also provided officers with a license plate number of the vehicle that the group was sitting in and spitting from. Officers ran the plate and contacted the owner of the car.
The owner of the car and mother of the driver said her son had her car and was with some of his cousins.
She told officers she would give her son a call and “get them home to deal with it.” It was later discovered her son was with his two brothers and two cousins.
Officers received two more complaints about the group. One complainant had been hit by something the kids spit.
“He advised me he was struck on the neck/shoulder area by what he thought was a grape being blown out of a straw,” the officer wrote.
The man was hit while walking with his 82-year-old grandmother.
He was uninjured, but he wanted the kids charged, according to the report.
Officers spoke with the driver of the suspect vehicle, who told police they all went to get boba drinks. The bite-size tapioca from their bubble teas is was what they were spitting out of straws toward pedestrians.
The officer let the family know he would be forwarding the report to prosecutors, after one of the victims filed a complaint.
The mother then asked officers if the kids could write apology letters or even do some community service. The officer told her she would need to ask the court that question.
