ONALASKA RESIDENT RECOVERS STOLEN MOWER
• A 71-year-old Onalaska man got his stolen riding lawnmower back yesterday after he tracked down someone selling it the Internet on Craigslist. The victim had reported the theft earlier this month and began checking the online classified advertising website regularly hoping it might turn up, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office. The man and sheriff’s detectives conducted a ruse in which a detective posed as the victim’s grandson who needed to replace his grandfather’s mower and met the seller in Olympia yesterday, Chief Civil Deputy Stacy Brown said this morning. Detectives then arrested Jonathan M. McClain, 23, of Olympia, for first-degree trafficking in stolen property, Brown said. McClain was booked into the Lewis County Jail.
“OUT-OF-CONTROL” MAN ARRESTED IN CENTRALIA
• Police say a 30-year-old Centralia man tried to start a fight with several people and then broke the window out of a van at the 500 block of North Tower Avenue in Centralia around noontime yesterday. Ronald J. Jennings was arrested for disorderly conduct as well as third-degree malicious mischief and booked into the Lewis County Jail, according to the Centralia Police Department.
MAN ARRESTED FOR SLAPPING CHILD
• A 29-year-old Bucoda man was arrested for misdemeanor assault after he was observed slapping a 4-year-old boy inside a vehicle in the Wal-Mart parking lot in Chehalis yesterday. Officers called about 12:45 p.m. arrested Aaron B. Chilson and then released him, according to the Chehalis Police Department. The child was turned over to his mother, according to the police department.
WRECK
• A 17-year-old driver lost control of his vehicle on South Schueber Road in Chehalis yesterday afternoon, spinning it into a ditch where it struck a tree and rolled onto its top, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office. The 17-year-old’s 1999 Ford Ranger was totaled and the teen was cited for driving with no insurance, Chief Civil Deputy Stacy Brown said. It happened about 2:20 p.m., Brown said. The extent of his injuries was unavailable.
CHIMNEY FIRE
• Firefighters called to a house on the 100 block of East High Street in Centralia yesterday evening found fire in the wall space behind a wood stove chimney and had to remove portions of the structure to make sure it was completely extinguished. The resident had just returned home and was alerted by a smoke detector, Riverside Fire Authority Capt. Erik Olson said. Olson estimated the damage at perhaps more than $20,000. The cause appeared to be faulty installation from long ago, Olson said.