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Updated
CALLER TRICKS WOMAN INTO GIVING HIM $2,000
• A 77-year-old Centralia area woman who answered a phone call yesterday morning from a man who said he was an officer with the U.S. Treasury Prepaid Department and she would be arrested if she did not immediately pay more than $6,400 she owed, stayed on the phone with him while she drove to her bank and got him the money. The Lewis County Sheriff’s Office said the victim purchased four $500 card from Rite Aid and gave the foreign-accented caller the activation numbers. However, the clerk warned the woman it could be a scam and the women drove to the sheriff’s office to report what happened, Chief Deputy Stacy Brown said. A deputy tried to call the man back, but the person just kept hanging up, Brown said. The victim is out $2011.80. The sheriff’s office recommends if anyone is ever skeptical about such a call, they can contact the sheriff’s office for assistance. Also, Brown said, anyone who gets a call from someone demanding payment ought to hang up, independently verify the number of the supposed agency and phone them to check.
RESIDENTIAL THEFTS
• Police were called on Thursday to a home on the 200 block of East Chestnut Street where an individual reported the theft of prescription medications sometime during the night, according to the Centralia Police Department.
• An officer was called to the 2400 block of Borst Avenue in Centralia about 6:40 p.m. on Wednesday regarding the theft of prescription medication, according to the Centralia Police Department.
• Centralia police were called at about 4:55 p.m. on Wednesday about a burglary to a home on the 1500 block of Delaware Avenue. Taken were electronics, vehicle keys, a wallet and numerous other items, according to the Centralia Police Department. The case is under investigation.
• Chehalis police were called about 1 p.m. on Tuesday to the 1900 block of South Market Boulevard after the discovery someone went inside an unlocked apartment and stole a television.
• Somebody stole a flag from a front porch at the 200 block of West Chestnut Street in Centralia, according to a report made to police about 5:45 p.m. on Wednesday.
AUTO THEFT
• Centralia police arrested a 32-year-old man for possession of a stolen vehicle after responding to a dispute on the 1200 block of Ward Street about 3:45 p.m. on Thursday and concluding he was not supposed to have the vehicle. Lucas J. Davis was booked into the Lewis County Jail, according to the Centralia Police Department. He was released from jail today as prosecutors declined to file the criminal charge.
• A 31-year-old man was arrested at Scheuber and Fords Prairie roads just before 5 p.m. on Wednesday for allegedly being in possession of a stolen vehicle. Michael E. Thomas, a homeless person, was booked into the Lewis County Jail, according to the Centralia Police Department. According to charging documents, an officer noticed the vehicle was parked at an odd angle, conducted a check and learned it was stolen. Thomas, who was standing at the open driver’s door told the officer someone else had been driving the car, but the officer found two keys in Thomas’s pocket that had been shaved, or ground down, charging documents relate. Neither Centralia police’s summary nor charging documents mention the make or model of the vehicle in question. At his court appearance on Thursday, a defense attorney told the judge Thomas resides in Olympia with his girlfriend. He was released on a $5,000 unsecured bond.
THEFTS AT BUSINESSES
• Centralia police called to a fight in a grocery store parking on the 500 block of South Tower Avenue lot at about 2:15 p.m. on Thursday discovered two security officers struggling to detain a suspected shoplifter. Twenty-three-year-old John R. Cabell had allegedly fled the business with candy hidden in his clothing, according to the Centralia Police Department. Cabell suffered small cuts to his forehead and the other two sustained minor scrapes, according to police. Cabell was arrested and booked into the Lewis County Jail for second-degree robbery, according to police.
• Chehalis police were called Thursday to the 700 block of South Market Boulevard after the discovery of images on security video from around 6 a.m. of someone wearing a Halloween mask cutting a lock from an outdoor storage container. Nothing appeared to be missing, according to the Chehalis Police Department.
• Chehalis police were called to Wal-Mart about 10:45 p.m. on Thursday where a woman said she’d accidentally set down her purse and then it vanished.
• Chehalis police were called to Bartel’s clothing store on the 400 block of North Market Boulevard on Wednesday morning following the discovery that during the night somebody cut a lock to their glass front display case and stole shoes and backpacks.
VEHICLE PROWL
• A suspected car prowler wasn’t too difficult to apprehend in Chehalis early on Wednesday morning as he dozed off in the front passenger seat of the car he’d allegedly been rifling through. Detective Sgt. Gary Wilson said the car’s owner called police just after 5 a.m. to say there was someone sleeping in his vehicle on the 500 block of Northwest St. Helens Avenue. The suspect was still napping when the officer arrived and had to be physically removed from the car, according to police. When Joshua G. Dagris was searched, an iPhone that belonged in the car was found, as were credit cards from a Centralia car prowl a few days earlier, according to authorities. At the jail, a disassembled plastic pen on Dagris was found to have suspected heroin residue inside it, charging documents relate. The 27-year-old was booked and subsequently charged in Lewis County Superior Court with second-degree vehicle prowl, second-degree possession of stolen property and possession of a controlled substance. An attorney arguing for his bail on Thursday in Lewis County Superior Court noted although the W.F. West High School graduate had just been sentenced a week earlier for a drug violation, he’s been working really hard to get back on his feet. Dagris, homeless during his last case, is now paying rent for a place to live, had just landed a job three days earlier and is undergoing outpatient treatment, defense attorney Joely O’Rourke told the judge. His bail was set at $5,000.
• Someone broke into a vehicle at the 400 block of Northwest North Street in Chehalis and stole speakers and jumper cables, according to a report made to police on Wednesday.
• Officers took a report on Wednesday from the 1500 block of Delaware Avenue in Centralia that someone entered the victim’s unlocked vehicle and removed his wallet, according to the Centralia Police Department.
DRUGS
• A 43-year-old inmate at the Lewis County Jail was arrested for a violation of the Uniform Controlled Substances Act last night after suspected methamphetamine was found under her mattress. The sheriff’s office reports Felicia F. Harris was brought in on the relay from another jail earlier in the day and a corrections officer suspecting drug activity in her cell found the white crystal substance, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office.
VANDALISM
• Chehalis police on Thursday took reports of buildings tagged with graffiti on Northwest Pacific Avenue and North Market Boulevard.
GUN SHOT
• Chehalis police were called at 7:23 p.m. on Tuesday after a gunshot was heard on Southwest Sylvenus Street. The officer was not able to locate its source, according to the Chehalis Police Department.
PERSON IN DISTRESS
• Centralia police responded about 7:35 p.m. on Thursday to an argument between family members in which one of the participants sliced their own throat with a knife, according to the Centralia Police Department. The victim was transported from the 1100 block of Scammon Creek Road to Providence Centralia Hospital. The case is under investigation, according to police.
AND MORE
• And as usual, other incidents such as arrests for warrants, shoplifting, misdemeanor assault, protection order violation, driving under the influence, driving with suspended license; responses for alarm, dispute, suicidal person, misdemeanor theft, suspicious circumstances, collision on city street, possible identity theft, various unfounded reports … and more.
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