March 10
High Speed Chase on North End. At 10:19 in the evening, Cencom dispatched officers to a burglary in progress on Springridge Road. Three people had been found trespassing on the property. While en route, officers learned that the suspects were leaving in a dark-colored raised truck. One of the suspects was identified as the grandson of the homeowner.
Officer Trevor Ziemba was traveling south on Miller when he observed a vehicle approaching him at 66 mph, per radar. He pulled off to the side to get a look at the truck as it drove past. He saw it was a raised, dark-colored truck.
He started to turn around and heard the vehicle accelerate. He gave chase but the truck lost him. He headed south on 305 and as he approached Lovgren he saw taillights traveling eastbound. He gave chase but even at 60 mph couldn’t keep up. He saw it turning north on Madison without stopping. Ziemba turned onto Madison and saw that by then the truck was at Day. It then turned east. He tried again to catch it. At Day and Sunrise he saw the vehicle traveling north on Sunrise. Over the 1 mile on Sunrise, Ziemba was able to close the gap. When he got within 100 yards, he activated his lights again. The truck turned onto Misty Vale and immediately pulled to the side.
Ziemba conducted a high risk stop. The vehicle was occupied by two males and a female. All were detained without incident.
The female confirmed she understood her rights and said she wanted to speak with Ziemba. She appeared visibly shaken. When asked why the driver had been going so fast, she said that when they had passed him, the driver had said, “It’s the cops. I have to get out of here.” He told them his license was suspended. She said he began “driving crazy” and “out of control fast.” She said she was very scared and was screaming at him to stop. She made sure her seatbelt was fastened and was afraid they were going to crash. She thought they were going over 100 mph.
She said that she and the driver and her boyfriend had been at the Casino when the driver said he wanted to show her boyfriend an old truck on his grandfather’s property. They agreed and drove to Springridge. They looked at the truck, and the driver picked up several pieces of scrap metal and put them into the bed of his truck.
She said they were then approached by a man with a dog who started yelling at them for being on the property.
Officer Steve Cain had been interviewing the boyfriend. The boyfriend had told him a similar story.
Ziemba then spoke with the driver. He asked him what was going on. He said he had gone to his grandfather’s to look at a truck. They were approached by a man with a dog who started yelling at them, searched his vehicle, and said he was going to call the police. He said he had spoken with his grandfather earlier in the day and had been given permission to be there.
Ziemba asked him if they had taken anything from the property, and he said no. Ziemba told him he knew he was lying and that he had taken scrap metal. He said, “Yeah. We took it.” He said his grandfather wouldn’t mind. Ziemba said he would contact the grandfather to confirm, and the man said he was in Mexico so Ziemba wouldn’t be able to.
Ziemba then called the reporting party. The man is the caretaker for the property. He had spoken earlier with the owner who had expressed concern his grandson might try to steal items from the property. He said that the owner had received a suspicious call from his grandson earlier in the day and thought it was an attempt to determine if he was out of town.
The man said the grandson had broken into the house before and stolen guns and had not been allowed back since. He said he had locked the gate earlier so the grandson must have used a key.
He provided Ziemba with the owner’s phone number.
Ziemba called the owner who confirmed his grandson was not allowed on the property and had been told that several times. He said it was a difficult decision, but he wanted to press charges.
Ziemba arrested the grandson for criminal trespass and theft.
The officers found that the boyfriend passenger had three outstanding arrest warrants for harassment and hit and run. They arrested him. The woman and the driver were clear of warrants. A DOL check on the driver showed that his license was suspended and that he had altered and fabricated tabs on his truck. He explained he had done it because he thought his registration was expired. But it wasn’t and he said, “My dad must have paid for it.” The registration had been made with a crayon.
Ziemba told him he was going to impound his vehicle. The driver was booked for trespass, theft, and driving with a suspended license and assigned bail of $15,000. Officers requested additional charges of reckless driving and display of changed/disfigured plate. The boyfriend was booked on $6,000 bail.
Ziemba returned the scrap metal to the property.
Altercation Over a $9 Fax. Cencom advised about a civil dispute at the UPS Store. Officer Ben Sias called the reporting party who explained he had been at the UPS Store faxing documents to the IRS. He paid the charge and then noted that he had been overcharged.
He brought this to the employee’s attention and she mistakenly refunded the entire charge.
She asked for his card a third time, and he was unwilling to give it to her as she had already made two mistakes. The refund had not yet showed up on his account. She asked him to pay in cash.
He had been there half an hour and decided to leave. The employee refused to allow him to leave but she used no force.
The customer told Sias that once the transaction was cleared from his card he would return to settle up.
A witness said that the man had been leaning over the counter berating the employee.
The employee told Lieutenant Denise Giuntoli that she had offered the man several options for paying, but he refused all of them. The loss to the store is $9.
$14,000 Fraud. Officer Jeff Benkert contacted a fraud victim at his request. The man told Benkert that on the morning of the 8th he had eaten out at a local restaurant. He had used his Visa debit card and was shocked to find out his card had been declined. His phone app showed numerous transactions that he had not made or authorized.
He had been advised earlier in the year by his bank that they were aware of some security breaches related to the Target security failure. He had been issued a new card and PIN number. He had destroyed his old card.
He contacted his bank again after his card was declined and was told that his old card and PIN had been used for over $8000 in purchases. It had also been used to move $6000 from his savings account to his checking account. The suspect then attempted to withdraw the amount but was unsuccessful. The suspect then used the card number and pin to make purchases at a Georgia department store.
The man said the bank had reimbursed him for the loss.
Boat Prowl. Officer Jeff Benkert met a man at the station about a theft investigation. The man said some items had been taken from his boat at the Eagle Harbor Marina. He said that on March 9 at about 5 in the evening he had gone to his boat for the first time since late February. He observed that the deck box on the foredeck was missing. The box had not been secured to the deck. It had contained four folding chairs that were also missing.
He said later he had gone to the recycling station and found a small children’s folding table that had been on his boat.
Stolen Bike. A man called 911 to report his bicycle had been stolen from in front of his porch. He believed it had been stolen on Friday between 4 and 8 when he returned home from work and leaned it against the porch. The bike is valued at $2700. He has visual impairment and relies on the bike for transportation.
March 9
Driving Without a License. At about 5:15 in the evening, Officer Ben Sias saw a man with a suspended license driving his vehicle into the T&C parking lot. He reported the man over the radio, and Cencom confirmed his license was still suspended as a result of a DUI.
By then, the man had parked his vehicle and left it.
At about 5:30, Sias saw the vehicle leaving the lot and he watched as it traveled west on Bjune. He stopped it at Madison. He recognized the man as the one with the suspended license. Sias told him his license was suspended because of the DUI. The man said he had met all the requirements and didn’t know it was suspended.
Sias issued him a criminal citation. The man left on foot.
March 8
Didn’t Hit the Bike but Did Hit the Ditch. At 8:46 in the evening, a vehicle was heading west on Winslow Way, just east of Grow. It drove around a bike, also westbound. The driver said she looked in her rear view mirror to make sure she had safely passed the cyclist and, as she did, she drove off the road into a ditch.
There were no injuries reported. Gateway Towing pulled the vehicle out of the ditch.
March 7
Driverless Motor Vehicle Accident. At 8 a.m. a vehicle was parked legally in the Diamond Parking lot. The emergency brake apparently failed, and the vehicle rolled back into another vehicle. There were no drivers and no witnesses. The car that rolled sustained minor damage to a corner of the rear bumper. The other car showed no damage. Police made attempts to contact the owner of the roller.
Distracting View Causes MVA. At 5:21 in the evening, a vehicle was stopped for traffic on the bridge. Traffic was backed up from the intersection at Suquamish Way. A second vehicle collided with the rear of the first. The driver of the first vehicle saw the other driver approaching and not appearing to slow down.
The second driver told Officer Walt Berg she was on the bridge and looked away from the road for “a second” to look at the water. When she looked back, the car in front of her had stopped. Both vehicles sustained reportable damage. The first car could be driven from the scene. The other had to be towed.
No-Damage Hit and Run Leads to Chase. At about 7:08 in the evening, Cencom reported that a driver had called in a hit and run and was following the vehicle that had hit his.
He reported a license plate number. Police told the caller to stop following the vehicle—the plate gave them an address, but he continued to follow. Officer Erik Peffer continued to the address where he found the victim who was waiting outside the residence.
Peffer spoke with the man who said he had been involved in a hit and run and followed the driver to his residence. He said he didn’t know if there had been any damage. Peffer checked the vehicle and saw nothing.
Officer Walt Berg stayed with the victim as Peffer went to the door of the residence. There he met the driver and told him why he was there. He said he didn’t know he had backed into anyone and had been wondering why the driver behind him had kept flashing his lights at him. He said he was driving home his disabled wife and wasn’t about to stop for someone he didn’t know.
He said he would have called police when he got home but the vehicle following him appeared to have left by then.
Peffer checked the man’s truck and saw no damage to it.
Keys Found in Bush. A woman brought a ring of keys to the station that she had found a few weeks earlier hanging on the branch of a bush at the corner of Winslow Way and Lovell.
Oil and Gas Producers Phone Scam. A man sent a letter to the BIPD explaining that he had received a telephone call on February 26 at about 9:30 in the morning. The caller was a woman with a foreign accent. The woman knew his name and said she was calling on behalf of what he heard as “Oil and Gas Producers.” She began asking him questions. First she wanted to know if he was still on Bainbridge Island. Then she asked if he made more than $200,000. He refused to answer and hung up.
The calling number was local. Lieutenant Chris Jensen called the number. A man answered. Jensen identified himself and told the man he was calling about a suspicious telephone call. The man said he had received several calls about that. He said he had no idea why, and the calls were not being made from his phone. Jensen told him it was possible to mask a call and make it look as if it were coming from a different phone. He suggested he contact his service provider for help.
Kinnear Road Mail Theft. A Kinnear Road resident contacted police to report that his mail had been stolen sometime after the 5th. He said he had also been bringing in mail for a neighbor and he hadn’t checked that box in four or five days. When he checked it was empty.
No-Otter Boat Break-in. Officer Gary Koon was dispatched to Seaborn Road about a theft. The victim said he commutes to Seattle each day by powerboat. When he went to his boat that morning he saw that the door to the cabin was slightly ajar and unlocked. He had locked it the day before in order to keep otters out of it. He saw that the Raymarine Display Unit was missing. The door appeared loose enough that a tool could have been used to wedge it open enough to bypass the deadbolt lock.
He estimated the loss at $1200 and the damage at $3500.
March 5
Found Mail Mush. A man turned in a pile of wet paper documents and credit cards that he had found outside a Winslow Way business. When the mail had dried out and Officer Carla Sias could read it, she tried to contact the person named on a Social Security card but there was no listing for her.
March 4
Poorly Thought Out Lie. At about 2:20 in the afternoon, Officer Ben Sias was working speed enforcement on Sportsman Club Road in the Woodward and Sakai school zones. He ran the plate of a truck that passed him. DOL advised that the owner had a suspended license for unpaid tickets.
He followed the vehicle to a driveway on Wardwell.
Sias spoke with the driver, who said he was not the owner of the vehicle. However, he confessed that he didn’t have a license because it was suspended. The passenger didn’t have a license either.
He had nothing on him to prove his identity.
Sias asked for a second officer. While he waited, he checked ILeads and discovered that the man the driver said he was looked nothing like the man in the car.
Sias asked him who he really was. The driver was adamant that he had provided his real name and date of birth.
Sias arrested him for having no identification and no license and for not being who he claimed to be.
The female in the car said she was dating the driver. She identified him by the name he had given.
Sias looked up the owner and it was clear from the photo that the man in the car was the owner. Cencom advised he had a felony warrant for possession of methamphetamine with a bail of $50,000.
The woman was also detained based upon her false statements. She also had several edged weapons on her and a small amount of marijuana. She acknowledged lying about the man’s name. Officer Mo Stich gave her a ride to Safeway and released her.
Gateway impounded the truck.
A Very Large Possum in a Hoody. A man on Komedal who had set up a game camera behind his house to catch footage of nuisance animals discovered, when reviewing the footage, that a young man had been on his back deck looking through his kitchen window. The camera was date stamped and indicated February 18 at about 4:30 in the morning. The male was wearing baggy jeans and a hoodie. He had a thin face and a thin beard.
Mysterious Hit and Run. A woman requested contact about a hit and run. She told Officer Jeff Benkert she had taken her vehicle to a repair shop for damage she believed had been caused by a hit and run.
She said that on the 26th she was being picked up by some friends. That’s when she saw the rear of her vehicle and noticed a dent in the bumper. She said it was about the size of a tennis ball.
Possible “Homeless” Occupant. A man told Officer Victor Cienega that he uses his residence on Ericksen as an office space. He noticed that someone had cut the master lock on one of the exterior doors. He located the cut lock in the bushes next to the residence. He had a second lock installed on the inside of the door so no one was able to gain entry.
He had noticed signs—such as cardboard and food in the bushes—that someone had been living in the area.
March 3
Hidden Cove Mail Theft. A woman came to the station to report mail theft from her Hidden Cove residence. On the 17th she had put two envelopes with payments in the box for pickup on Tuesday after the holiday. On the 18th she saw the flag was down and the envelopes were gone. But the mail wouldn’t have been picked up until later that afternoon. She contacted the companies and neither had received her payment.
The post office had found and delivered the stub portion of one of the payments to her. The stub had been inside the envelope she had placed in the box.
March 2
Elderly Pedestrian Crosses Street, Accident Ensues. At 3:30 in the afternoon, a driver stopped to allow an elderly pedestrian to cross in a marked crosswalk on Madison near Knechtel. A vehicle behind did not see and react in time and struck the rear of the stopped vehicle. The driver had no insurance.
February 25
Beware of Falling Objects. At 6:12 in the evening a woman was distracted by something that fell in her car. She did not notice the vehicle stopped in front of her, waiting for a pedestrian. Her vehicle rear ended the other, pushing it into a rock retaining wall.
