Pokémon Go is why she was driving slowly. Her warrant is why the officer took her to jail
Editor’s note: This blotter is compiled from recent Gig Harbor police reports.
He wanted to give his girlfriend roses. They were stolen
The day after Valentine’s Day, Gig Harbor police were dispatched to the Safeway at 4831 Point Fosdick Dr.
When officers arrived, a Safeway employee told the officer they had detained a man who tried to steal a few things.
The employee told the officer he was watching surveillance footage, when he saw the suspect walk through the deli doors, on camera.
The suspect grabbed a bag of cookies from the bakery, the report said.
After he got his sweets, he grabbed two cans of Red Bull, and went to the floral department to pick out some flowers.
He chose “a bouquet of red roses,” the report said.
For some reason he decided he didn’t want the cookies anymore and put them back.
He tried to walk out of the store with his items, but employees “stopped him and guided him back to the area, where they waited for police to arrive,” the report said.
The suspect told the officer “he was just being stupid.” He wanted to give the items to his girlfriend, who was waiting in the car.
The suspect had an active Department of Corrections warrant. He was booked into Kitsap County Jail on suspicion of third-degree theft and for his warrant, the report said.
Possible street racing suspects get away
Gig Harbor police got a call on Feb. 19 just after 9:30 p.m. The caller was complaining of multiple cars “revving and racing” near the Old Ferry Landing Park at 2700 Harborview Dr.
When officers got there, no one was there.
“I walked down to the park and immediately noticed that one of the large concrete planters had been completely moved,” the officer wrote. “There was a square concrete base exposed in the ground with a black tube extending upward into the soil of the pot.”
The officer also said there was spilled soil with tire marks in it.
The officer called the person who reported the incident and asked if she could describe the cars she saw. The woman sent the officer a video of a “dark-colored Jeep Wrangler, two silver sedans, and a fourth unknown vehicle,” the officer wrote.
In the video all the cars were driving north on Harborview Drive.
The officer asked the woman “if she heard any loud crashing or banging noises,” and she said no, according to the report.
When the officer left the park, two cars passed him. One was red and the other was black, he wrote.
He saw the cars parked at the park and turned around to see if they were the alleged offenders.
When the officer got there, there were three cars, and each driver denied any involvement with what happened.
“Their vehicles did not match those seen in the video sent to me by,” the woman, he wrote.
Driving while playing Pokémon Go
While patrolling the night of Feb. 22, a Gig Harbor police officer noticed a car driving oddly slow on Grandview Street.
It was just before midnight when the officer turned his police lights on, signaling for the driver to pull over.
The officer told the driver he was “concerned about her driving,” the report said.
The woman told the officer “she was playing Pokémon Go while driving,” the officer wrote.
She did not have a driver’s license with her, so the officer looked up the name on the paperwork she gave him for the vehicle.
She told the officer she might have a warrant. She did, for driving under the influence in Pierce County.
The office booked the women into the Pierce County Jail.
He had several warrants out for his arrest and did not want to go to jail
While patrolling near Olympic Drive, a Gig Harbor police officer saw a pickup parked near 5500 Olympic Dr.
The truck was backed in and the officer saw a man “duck down” from the passenger seat when he passed the truck.
The officer checked records on the vehicle and the owner, which revealed a list of violations.
The man had two warrants out of Pierce County for domestic violence no contact order violations. There was also one out of Port Orchard. Additionally, he had two warrants out of Kitsap County for driving under the influence, and a warrant for failing to have an ignition interlock device.
He “also returned with a Law Enforcement safety caution for violent tendencies and weapons on person,” the officer wrote.
The officer walked up to the passenger window and asked the man to get out of the car. The man opened the car door, but wouldn’t get out, the officer said in his report.
The man yelled at the officer saying he “had no reason to arrest him.”
Eventually the man got out of the car, but allegedly resisted when the officer tried to handcuff him, according to the report.
He was also “putting his hands to the front of his body towards his waist band,” the officer wrote. The man was also pulling away from the officer.
“I put my forearm against the upper portion of (his) trapezoid and pushed him into the pillar of the vehicle to prevent him from fleeing and to give his hands and arms less freedom.”
The man was able to get free and climb back into the vehicle, without closing the door. The man put his hands on the floorboard, the officer wrote.
The officer then drew his weapon and gave the suspect commands.
The officer put his gun away once the man put his hands in his lap. The man got a warning from the officer that if he refused to listen he would be pepper sprayed.
The man still did not get out of the car when asked. The officer attempted to spray the man, but the man moved his head, causing the spray to hit the side of the man’s face.
The officer tried again, this time getting the spray in the man’s eyes. He was placed in handcuffed shortly after, according to the report.
Backup units and Gig Harbor Medic One staff arrived at the scene.
Upon searching the man, they found two knifes in his pocket, according to the report.
The original officer poured water into the man’s eyes to help flush out the pepper spray.
Another officer checked under the passenger seat. Nothing was there, the report said.
The man started to complain of back and neck pain, but refused to answer questions from the medical staff. They took him to the hospital.
The man started “making quivering noises and jerking his neck and body around,” the officer wrote.
Hospital staff sedated the man because he wouldn’t cooperate for a medical evaluation.
Eventually the man was medically cleared and booked into the Kitsap County Jail for his warrants.
