Police Beat: When a stranger wants a Facebook friendship, you can always click the delete button

Editor’s note: Compiled from reports to Tacoma police and the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department.

June 25: Facebook connects people, as the company often says, though it never mentions people who try to extort other people for money.

The Pierce County man received a friend request from a stranger. He ignored it, and took a gamble. The woman at the other end asked for a video chat. The man gambled again. A little later, he called 911.

A sheriff’s deputy drove to the 20200 block of 77th Avenue Court East in Spanaway and spoke to the man, who admitted that he did some embarrassing things during the chat, though he wouldn’t be more specific.

The man said he received a Facebook message afterwards, telling him to send $800 to the Ivory Coast, using Western Union. Pay up in three days, the message said, or pictures of of his stunts in the chat would go to his employer and all his Facebook friends.

The man said he had no intention of sending money, but he wasn’t sure what else to do. He didn’t know the person, and had never seen her before, though she used his last name.

The deputy told the man to contact Facebook, and filed a report for information purposes.

June 24: The woman wanted someone to take her side, but no one would — so she started punching and shoving.

The dispatch call reported a domestic disturbance and a fight. Tacoma officers drove to an apartment complex in the 1400 block of South Mildred Street.

They found a woman, 20, and a man, 21. The woman was crying. The man had a bloody nose and scratches on his back and neck. Both said they’d been attacked by the woman’s friend, who lived in one of the other units.

The friend, a 19-year-old woman, had been fighting with her boyfriend. She flew into a rage when everyone took her boyfriend’s side in the argument. She screamed at the 21-year-old man and smacked him in the face, knocking off his glasses and bloodying his nose. The 20-year-old woman intervened, and got shoved away for her trouble.

Officers interviewed a third woman who said she tried to break up the fight and got punched.

Officers spoke to the 19-year-old. She was plainly drunk, and crying. The apartment was a mess. She said it was always messy because she and her boyfriend were busy people. She said her boyfriend left the apartment after the fight, and she didn’t know where he went.

Asked about punching the man, she denied it. Asked about shoving the 20-year-old woman, she admitted pushing her after arguing with the man.

Officers booked the 19-year-old into the Pierce County Jail on suspicion of misdemeanor assault.

June 19: It’s tough to deny your own name to cops, especially when it’s tattooed on your arm and they’ve met you before.

Sheriff’s deputies responding to a reported domestic incident drove to the 10200 block of 290th Street Court East in Graham.

The caller said a man with two active no-contact orders was parked in the driveway of an address he was supposed to avoid.

One deputy recognized the address and the suspect description. It matched a man named Vincent. Apart from the no-contact order, he had an active arrest warrant from the state Department of Corrections.

The deputies reached the address, and saw the man sitting in a white truck. The deputy who knew him walked to the driver’s door and told the man to step out.

“Why?” the man asked, lighting a cigarette.

The deputy told the man he was under arrest, and called him by name.

“Who’s Vincent?” the man replied, not moving.

The deputy said he already knew the man’s face, and pointed to the tattoo on his right arm with the name etched in ink.

“Vincent is my brother,” the man said.

Both deputies told the man to get out of the truck. The man got out. They cuffed him.

Asked if he understood his rights, the man said no, and added that he needed a bathroom.

Asked to confirm his name, the man said nothing. The deputies stowed him in the back of the patrol car.

They spoke to a woman who lived in a converted garage at the residence — the man’s girlfriend. She said she didn’t want to write a statement, but she signed the paper the deputy gave to her. She said she sometimes allowed the man to stay at the property in spite of the no-contact order.

Deputies spoke to the woman’s sister, who lived in the main house on the property. She said she was tired of all the conflict between the man and her sister, especially since the man was “a wanted criminal.”

Deputies booked the man into the Pierce County Jail on the state warrant.

This story was originally published June 30, 2018 at 10:22 PM.