Police beat: Bad ideas, bad drivers and arrest warrants

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

Jan. 26: Pop quiz — you’re parked in front of an abandoned house without the owner’s permission, hanging out with a couple of friends, sitting in a car full of cameras and computer tablets.

You’re 39 years old, you have an active warrant for your arrest, and you’re carrying a good-sized knife. A police officer rolls into the driveway of the abandoned house and starts asking your friends questions. What do you do?

a) Watch and listen silently and count on being told to move along.

b) Crack open a 22-ounce can of Steel Reserve Malt Liquor and start chugging it.

The Tacoma man chose option b. The police officer noticed and asked if the man understood it was against the law to drink in public.

“I’m not in public,” the man said.

The officer pointed out that the house in the 3400 block of South Gunnison Street was vacant and the man had no business being there. The neighbors had called to report suspicious activity.

Two other cars were parked at the house, guarded by a man and a woman. One car had a broken passenger window. The man standing nearby said his girlfriend advised parking at the empty house. The officer told him to move the cars as soon as possible.

The man with the malt liquor wasn’t so lucky. The officer ran a records check and found the arrest warrant, filed by the state Department of Corrections. The officer cuffed the man, stowed him in a patrol car, confiscated his knife and booked him into the Pierce County Jail on the warrant.

Jan. 27: The pedestrian did everything right. The driver, not so much.

At 11 p.m., in the rain and the dark, the pedestrian waited for a green light and a walk signal and started to cross Sixth Avenue. An officer watched.

A silver 2015 Camry came through the intersection, making a wide left turn, almost hitting the pedestrian, who jumped back just in time. The Camry kept going. The officer followed it and pulled it over.

The driver was a 19-year-old man. The officer asked for a driver’s license and proof of insurance. The driver said he didn’t have either and handed over a state ID card. He added that his license was suspended. The man said he didn’t see the pedestrian.

The Camry was a rental. The renter’s name didn’t match the driver’s.

The officer ran a records check. It was true: The man’s license was suspended. He also had an active arrest warrant out of Lakewood Municipal Court. The charge: hit and run.

The officer cuffed the man and put him in the patrol car. The man said he knew about the warrant. He knew he’d missed his court date, because he decided to go to Lake Chelan with his girlfriend instead.

The officer cited the man for driving with a suspended license and failing to yield to the pedestrian. He arranged a meetup with Lakewood police officers, who took custody of the driver on the hit-and-run warrant.

Jan. 28: You know that trick you pull when you’re worried that the cop in your rear-view mirror is following you, so you pull into a stranger’s driveway and act like it’s your house?

It doesn’t work, especially at 4:45 a.m. Officers noticed the 2002 Chevrolet Cavalier cruising along South M Street and ran the plate. The records said the car had been sold three months earlier, which was a giveaway: The old plate should have been changed.

The Cavalier kept going. Officers followed and flicked on their lights as it pulled into a driveway in the 7000 block.

They spoke to the driver, a 30-year-old woman. She said she bought the car several months back and hadn’t had time to transfer the title.

Did she have a driver’s license? The woman said she didn’t have it on her. She said she had an active warrant for her arrest and gave her name.

She wasn’t lying. Officers ran a background check and found her booking photos. She had an active, no-bail arrest warrant for a drug offense.

Officers cuffed her and put her in the patrol car. The woman said she didn’t know who lived at the house where she stopped. She was just trying to avoid getting pulled over. She asked officers to move the Cavalier to the curb, lock it and leave it there so she could pick it up later. Officers agreed, and booked her into the Pierce County Jail.

This story was originally published January 30, 2016 at 11:10 AM with the headline "Police beat: Bad ideas, bad drivers and arrest warrants."