Updated at 6:51 p.m.
THWARTED SCAM
• Chehalis police were called yesterday to Safeway when an employee got suspicious about a transaction a woman in her early 70s was attempting to conduct. The woman was apparently selling a time-share in Hawaii and she was wiring a buyer money and the buyer said he was going to mail her a check, according to the Chehalis Police Department. An arriving officer phoned the buyer who immediately hung up on him, Sgt. Gwen Carrell said. When the buyer then phoned the woman and the police officer answered, the man hung up again, Carrell said.
RECOVERED VEHICLES
• Centralia police yesterday afternoon recovered a Honda stolen last week. It was found abandoned in a parking lot with its ignition “punched,” according to the Centralia Police Department
• A 2009 Audi reported missing about 12:40 a.m. Sunday from Panisco Road near Cinebar was found just after 1 a.m. in the parking lot at Wal-Mart in Chehalis, according to police. The 49-year-old roommate of its owner was sleeping in the car and arrested and booked into jail. He is to be released from jail pending further investigation.
SHORT POLICE CHASE
• A 45-year-old Chehalis man was arrested for attempting to elude after a brief pursuit by police abut 11:40 p.m. on Friday that began near Fair Street in Chehalis. The pursuit was terminated but the officer soon came upon a trooper with Scott R. Mullins who had wrecked near Kresky Avenue and Summa Street, according to Sgt. Gwen Carrell. Mullins was released from jail yesterday afternoon.
THEFT
• Police took a report around noon yesterday about plywood stolen from a residence under renovation at the 400 block of South Tower Avenue in Centralia.
TOLEDO FIRE
• Three fire departments were dispatched just before 11 o’clock last night to a mobile home fire near Toledo. Lewis County Fire District 2 Capt. Tracy Summers said when they arrived to the 200 block of Kangas Road, flames were rolling out a window on one end. He described the trailer as a complete loss. Nobody was living in it, but the woman on the property used it as her sewing house, he said. No injuries were reported. Summers said it appeared to have originated near the circuit box.
MORTON RESIDENT SCAMMED OUT OF $6,000
• An elderly Morton man was tricked into sending thousands of dollars to an individual pretending to be from a law enforcement agency in Canada, who claimed the Morton man’s grown daughter had been arrested and needed $2,000 bail money. The man contacted the Morton Police Department last week after he realized what happened, Chief Dan Mortensen said. The victim got the first phone call about two days earlier telling him his grown daughter was in jail for driving under the influence and possessing marijuana, according to Mortensen. “They actually put him on the telephone with a person who identified herself as his daughter,” Mortensen said. “She sounded like his daughter, and called him a name she calls him.” Then the Morton man, whose name was not released, was called a second time and told something went wrong, so he needed to send another $2,000, the chief said. He was told to send it to Puerto Rico, because “the bail bondsman were all at a conference there.” A third phone call asked for $2,000 more for airfare so she could get home, he said. “I think at the time, the light came on,” Mortensen said. The man’s real daughter was on vacation, according to Mortensen. The chief said it’s a scam that’s been been going on for quite some time. The money is gone, the chief said. He had no expectation the Morton Police Department or any law enforcement agency could help the victim get it back, since the money was sent out of the country, he said.