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1:13 p.m.
November 8
$300K Stolen. Officer Jeff Benkert received a call about fraud. The victim was awaiting contact at the station. Benkert responded and met the victim. He said that he had received a phone call from his bank (Schwab). The bank advised him that a check had not cleared due to insufficient funds. He said he checks his account daily and that the balance should be nearly $300,000. He checked his account and saw that it had a balance of $0.
He contacted the bank and told them that all of his funds had been withdrawn without his consent. The representative supplied him with a fraud affidavit. He was told that a wire transfer had been requested in the exact amount of the account balance. The balance was approved and sent to a bank in Hong Kong on November 5. The man was told that the person requesting the transfer had provided all of the information required by the bank to conduct a transfer. The person could answer all the security questions. He was told that his funds would be returned on the 9th after receipt of the fraud affidavit.
The man told Benkert that he has not lost any personal identification information recently and that he had not been burglarized. He aid he had recently been at a hotel in Colorado and used unsecured WiFi to check his account on his laptop.
November 7
Heroin Overdose. At approximately 11 p.m., Officers Ben Sias and Walt Berg responded to a call about an overdose on Wing Point Way. They were advised that a 20-year-old male at the Oxford House was passed out in the bathroom. They made contact with the reporting party and learned from him that the victim was actually downstairs in the living room, but his syringe was upstairs in the bathroom.
The reporting party told the officers that he had suspected the day before that the male had relapsed. He said that the man had been having trouble standing up and had gone headfirst over the couch, prompting the 911 call. Another man who identified himself as the house “President” said that he had discovered a used syringe on the back of the toilet in the upstairs bathroom. He said the young man had been living in the house for approximately 2 weeks.
Berg went upstairs and saw the syringe at the back of the toilet. The President asked if he would search the young man’s room and belongings for drugs. Berg said he could not do that absent a search warrant. The man said he could, as it was a condition of living there. He emerged from the room a few minutes later saying he had not found anything else. He asked Berg to advise the man that his residency there was terminated for bringing and using drugs in the house. He said that the man could come back and retrieve his belongings but then he would have to leave. Berg went out to the ambulance and told the man who was conscious and being attended to by Aid. His file indicated he had opiate and meth addiction issues. Sias collected the needle and put it in a Sharps container. The man was transported by Aid.
DUI Warrant. At approximately 5 a.m., an officer from Benton County called to request confirmation of a warrant on a Quilcene man for DUI. Officer Ben Sias found a DUI warrant out of Bainbridge Municipal Court. He confirmed the warrant.
Fraudulent Impersonation for Pain Meds. At about 3:18 in the afternoon, a Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office deputy requested that an officer do a welfare check at a residence on Cherry to determine if a specific man was there. Reportedly, the man had left Harrison Hospital in Silverdale with an IV still attached to his arm. Officer Steve Cain was told that a black Honda Civic or Accord was associated with the case.
Cain phoned the reporting party, a doctor. The doctor told Cain that a person had been in the ER and received an IV infusion of three different medications for back pain. He said they had just discovered that a man with the same name had been at the ER the night before and had been given a prescription for pain medication in pill form, but he didn’t believe the prescription had been filled yet. The doctor said that the person had clearly scammed them and was now flagged in their database to require additional screening measures. The doctor said that the man had told him he was homeless and that he lived in the Poulsbo and Kingston area.
Cain responded to the address and the door was answered by a woman who identified herself as the man’s girlfriend. She said he lives there but was at work at a local restaurant. Cain asked her if her boyfriend had been at the ER earlier in the day, and she said that she had been with him all the previous night and all day and that they had not been at the ER. But she said she had an idea who was probably behind it.
The woman explained that her ex-husband is a pain medication addict and has warrants. She said he comes to the house occasionally because one of his children lives there. She said that he had probably obtained her boyfriend’s name and date of birth while there and was using it to obtain pain medications. She said he is identifiable because he has a MRSA infection scar on his right upper arm. Cain asked her if she knew if he would have been driving a black Honda, and she said she didn’t know but she did know that a friend of his drives a car like that. She said that the friend is also an addict and has warrants.
Cain phoned the Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office deputy and told him what he had learned. The deputy said he would have a Central Kitsap unit go to the hospital to meet with the doctor to take a criminal report for forgery and prescription fraud.
Cain then traveled to the restaurant and made contact with the man who said that the deputy had already called him and that he wanted to make an identity theft report to the BI police. He said he had not been at the ER at any time in the past two days. He confirmed that he did have all his identification and licenses. Cain recommended that he contact the three major credit card agencies in order to flag his name to prevent it from being used again.
Burglarized Cash Can. A man reported that someone had burglarized his Eagle Harbor Drive residence and stolen $600 in U.S. currency that he had hidden in the house. There were no indications of forced entry. He said his house had been unlocked. He said that between the hours of 11 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. the day before, someone had entered the house and removed the cash from a metal tin in the living room. He said almost no one knew about the can. He said that a laptop computer and other valuable items had been located in the same general area as the tin but nothing had been stolen besides the money. He mentioned that his girlfriend knew about the can but that she had not taken it. He and his girlfriend had tried to figure out who it might have been, but they had not come up with anyone.
November 6
Driving Without a License. At about 10:25 a.m., Officer Scott Weiss was traveling south on Madison Avenue behind a maroon Honda with Washington plates. He ran the plate number and learned that the registered owner had a suspended driving status. Weiss turned on his emergency lights, and the driver pulled into the rear of the Seabreeze Apartments off of Madison. Weiss contacted the driver who identified himself as the owner of the vehicle. He provided his license, registration, and proof of insurance. Weiss issued him a citation for driving with a suspended license.
Bainbridge Island Woman Wanted on Multiple Warrants. Cencom requested a warrant confirmation for Poulsbo PD. The warrant was for a Bainbridge Island woman who was wanted on multiple arrants including out of KCSO and King County. Officer Walt Berg located a Bainbridge Island Municipal Court warrant for her with a bail of $20,000. He confirmed the warrant.
November 5
Homeless Man Sleeping in Bathroom. Officer Jeff Benkert received a call about a burglary in progress at Bainbridge Performing Arts on Madison. Benkert responded to the scene and was met by the reporting party who identified himself as an employee. He said that at approximately 9:15 a.m., he had been notified by the maintenance employee that a man was inside the bathroom of the bungalow on the rear of the property. The man told Benkert that the bungalow has a defective lock on the door handle. The door can only be locked from the inside. When the maintenance worker arrived in the morning to clean the bathroom, the door was locked. She knocked on the door and it was answered by an unknown man. The man was described as likely homeless. He was described as a white male, about 6’02″ and thin with scraggly brown hair. He as wearing a brown jacket and carrying a sleeping bag. He left the scene without incident. Benkert searched the bathroom and found a paper bag with a pillow inside. Nothing was missing from the bathroom and no damage had been caused. Benkert and Officer Mo Stich searched the immediate area for the man but did not find him.
Asleep at the Wheel. At 5 a.m. a vehicle drifted off 305 at Madison and onto the shoulder and drainage ditch. It struck an old construction sign, knocking it down. It then returned to the road. The driver said he had fallen asleep and woken up off the road, driving in the drainage ditch.
Fight About Spending the Night. At approximately 11:13 in the evening, Officer Gary Koon was dispatched by Cencom to the Winslow Wharf Marina for an assault. Officers Victor Cienega and Walt Berg and Lieutenant Giuntoli also responded. Koon and Cienega contacted the reporting party, and Berg and Giuntoli contacted the suspect. The reporting party told Koon that the suspect had struck him across the face with his fists. Cienega and Koon asked him to point to where he had been struck. He pointed to the right and left sides of his forehead. Koon saw a lump, a small scuff, and discoloration on the right side of his forehead and a lump and discoloration on the left side of his forehead. Cienega could not see any marks on the right side of his head. Cienega asked him if he required medical treatment, but he declined.
Berg was familiar with the situation, having been called to that location on numerous occasions. He asked the suspect what had been going on, and he said that the other man had assaulted him. Berg asked him where he had been struck, and he pointed to the right side of his face. Berg observed no apparent injuries. He noted that the man was very intoxicated. He asked what had started the fight, but he was either unwilling or unable to tell him anything other than that he had lost his green baseball cap. Berg ran the man for warrants and found that there was one for him from Bainbridge Island Municipal Court for assault and one for possession of mairjuana.
The man was slurring his speech and swaying as the officers spoke with him. Cienega asked him what he had been drinking, and he said he was “just drinking beer.” He then explained that he had invited the suspect over to hang out but when he had told the man he could not spend the night, the man became upset and violent, striking him with his fists. He then had dialed 911 and handed the phone to the other man who admitted to the dispatcher that he had beaten up the other man. This was confirmed in the call log.
Berg had the man go on to his boat to get the other man’s belongings as Koon interviewed the suspect. He asked the man if he knew how the other man had been injured. He said that the man had hit his head but refused to answer how.
Cencom advised that the suspect had two arrest warrants out of Bainbridge Island Municipal Court. They walked the suspect off the dock to the street side where Koon told him he was under arrest. Koon transported him to the Kitsap County Jail.
November 1
A “Not Creepy” Man Handing out Candy. At 9:06 p.m. on October 31, three juvenile females were walking near Rotary Park. As they arrived at the entrance to the park, a white or silver van pulled into the park. The girls described the driver as a white male with a lot of tattoos on his arms and neck. They said he was heavy set and bald and said to them through the open window, “I’m not trying to be creepy. Do you want candy?” The girls said that he kept saying, “I’m not creepy.” The man then said, “I’ll leave the candy on the ground for you.”
The girls felt uncomfortable with the circumstances and ran home. They said that the van had stayed at the entrance to the park when they ran off but they believed that it then left from the parking lot northbound on Weaver. None of the girls had seen the man before. None of the girls indicated that he had attempted to get them to enter the van or go to a remote part of the park. Officer Steve Cain and Lieutenant Bob Day searched the area for the van but found nothing.
On November 1, Detective Trevor Ziemba made contact with a man who had come to the station for followup information regarding the incident. After speaking with him about the incident Ziemba requested that the man’s daughter view a photo lineup including an individual that had a similar appearance and who was wanted for burglary. He agreed and returned later in the day with his daughter. Ziemba provided a lineup to her and read her the admonition. After reviewing the lineup, she was unable to ID any of the people as the one she had seen on Halloween. She indicated that two of the individuals were possibilities. One had a similar face, but she thought that the person she had seen was bald. She also said that the person had had tattoos completely covering his arms and maybe even his neck. Detectives noted that the burglary suspect has hair but also is fully sleeved with tattoos.
Meanwhile, the suspect who had been spotted at the Casino was coincidentally being taken into custody. He was booked into Kitsap County Jail for burglary. Ziemba showed the daughter a picture from the arrest, but the daughter still could not positively identify him. After speaking with the daughter again about the incident, detectives determined that the incident did not meet the level of child luring even though it was suspicious and disturbing. Detectives also noted that the suspect in custody has no known history of this type of incident.
Detectives searched ILEADS for similar calls of service for Bainbridge and the north end of the county but found nothing. Ziemba also conducted a call for service for similar calls going back to September 1 on Bainbridge but found nothing.
Stolen Bike. A man reported that a bike had been sitting outside on his porch on Homestead Lane. He later discovered that it was missing. He knew that the theft had happened sometime within the last week.
October 26
Stolen Binocs. A pair of Vortex Viper 8×32 binoculars were removed from an unlocked vehicle in a home driveway sometime between October 15 and October 26. They were valued at $642.