MORE EQUIPMENT DAMAGED AS CENTRALIA BUSINESS VISITED AGAIN BY WIRE THIEVES
• The damage this time is in the neighborhood of $20,000 as thieves struck again at Lakeside Industries in Centralia. An officer called about 11:45 a.m. yesterday to the 2000 block of Johnson Road learned someone cut wiring from numerous pieces of industrial equipment at the business, according to Officer Angie Humphrey. In this case, they may have been spooked because two large rolls of wire were set aside as though ready to be loaded up but were left, Humphrey said. The officer asks anyone with any information about the thefts to call 911 or Lewis County Crime Stoppers.
NOT A HATE CRIME
• Chehalis police were called around noon yesterday by a man with a complaint someone outside Safeway was displaying a political sign showing a picture of Barack Obama with a Hitler mustache. Not a crime, according to Chehalis police. “Basically the officer told him it was freedom of speech,” Sgt. Brian Hickey said.
CHEHALIS HOME BURGLARIZED
• Someone broke into a Chehalis home and stole three televisions, three laptops, three other computers, cell phones and a security safe. An officer called 5:15 p.m. yesterday to the residence on the 300 block of James Street noted a door may have been kicked in and a window was broken, according to the Chehalis Police Department. It seemed to have occurred over the weekend, according to Sgt. Brian Hickey.
PRESCRIPTION DRUGS PILFERED
• An officer took a report about 8:30 a.m. yesterday regarding pills missing from various bottles of prescription medications at a home on the 1000 block of F Street in Centralia. Among the pilfered drugs were morphine, Oxycontin and Lorazepam, according to the Centralia Police Department.
VANDALISM
• Centralia police were called around 12:20 p.m. yesterday to the 2600 block of Eureka Avenue about damage to the gas line on a vehicle.
• The sheriff’s office is looking for information about someone spray painting graffiti at Onalaska school’s baseball field dugouts over the weekend. Chief Civil Deputy Stacy Brown said this morning the vandalism was reported on Sunday and must have happened sometime after 6 p.m. on Friday. The damage will cost $500, according to Brown.
DISORDERLY MAN TAKEN AWAY BY POLICE
• Centralia police called to a convenience store on the 1200 block of Mellen Street for reports of a man “freaking out, running around and being weird” discovered the subject sitting in the driver’s seat of a stranger’s car about 2:15 p.m. yesterday. Michael Stedham, 23, was allegedly uncooperative with officers who tried to detain him. The Centralia resident was arrested for obstructing and vehicle prowl and was taken to the hospital for a mental evaluation, according to the Centralia Police Department.
NOT JUST A FIRE DRILL
• Children were evacuated from Centralia’s Oakview Elementary School about 11 o’clock yesterday morning and fire department summoned. “It wasn’t actually a fire but smoke from an overheated laminating machine,” Riverside Fire Authority Capt. Erik Olson said.