Port Orchard Police

Drugs, imaginary cash transactions highlight Port Orchard reports.

PORT ORCHARD — The following summaries are derived from recent reports filed by officers with the Port Orchard Police Department. The summaries are not to be considered a complete recounting of incidents filed by police officers.

Sept. 23

An officer dispatched at 8:36 p.m. to a department store at the 3400 block of Bethel Avenue was directed by the store’s loss prevention officer to an alleged female shoplifter. The suspect, who was identified and handcuffed, was observed by store security walking through the store, selecting items and switching price tags with other, lower-priced items.

The suspect was then seen purchasing the items for less than their retail price. As she was leaving the store with her “discounted” items, the store’s security officer stopped her in the vestibule area. They made a beeline to the security office, where the police officer read the woman her Miranda rights. She then admitted to the police officer and loss prevention employee that she bought the items for less than their marked retail price.

The suspect said she knew she was stealing and began to apologize to the store official. Apparently, she was skilled in this “The Price Is Right”-style bit of switcheroo, admitting to having done it numerous times previously. The suspect also said she hadn’t been thinking of the consequences and was only attempting to save money.

The woman was released at the scene with a mandatory court date after being issued a citation for third-degree theft.

Sept. 21

Units were dispatched at 1:43 p.m. to Veterans Memorial Park at 976 Olney Ave. SE on a report of transients trespassing in a camp in the woods. The property manager reported to police that the campsite was adjacent to the cemetery on the Veterans Park property.

He contacted the transients two days before, telling them they had trespassed and needed to leave the property. But in checking the site that day, he discovered they were still there.

A police sergeant and two officers arrived at the wooded campsite and were met by a male “resident.” He admitted they had been asked to leave, but reported to officers that he was in the process of packing up and waiting for a ride. But a quick examination indicated otherwise, according to the police report. His tent was still up and the area was strewn with trash.

When asked if anyone was inside the tent, the man told police a woman was inside. When officers looked inside the tent, they found a female passed out on a mattress. Told several times to awaken, the woman finally opened her eyes but appeared disoriented. She quickly picked up a syringe lying next to her and tried to conceal it in a trash bag. The sergeant told her to stop and put it down.

Officers peering inside the tent saw several items of drug paraphernalia commonly used in the process of preparing injectable narcotics, including a metal spoon with burn marks and a bowl with a brown substance inside. Also part of the drug kit was a rubber strap and a silicone container containing small used and unused cotton balls. There also was a second silicone container that held a brown tarry substance, according to the police report, which stated it appeared to be tar heroin. When the woman was asked if it contained heroin, she replied that it did.

Asked to leave the tent, the woman was put into wrist restraints and the items placed into evidence. A records check showed the female transient had an unconfirmed Kitsap County District Court warrant for her arrest for obstructing a law enforcement officer, with bail set at $500. One of the officers advised her that she was under arrest for possession of heroin and her outstanding warrant. Upon testing, the substance weighing .08 grams tested positive for heroin. Also in her possession was used syringes and four 30mg tablets of amphetamine-dextroamphetamine.

The transients were also criminally trespassed from park property. The woman was taken to Kitsap County Jail and charged with possession of heroin, possession of a scheduled narcotic, use of and delivering drug paraphernalia and for her outstanding warrant, with a total bail set at $13,000.

Sept. 21

An officer, stopped in a parking lot at the 3400 block of Bethel Avenue at 1:28 a.m., had his windows down so he could hear the sounds of a fleeing motorcycle possibly in the area. Instead, he heard a repetitive thumping sound most commonly made by a flat tire being driven on, coming from the north. Growing louder, the sound matched up with a vehicle traveling southbound on Bethel that drove past the officer.

Observing that the front passenger tire was flat, the officer slipped in behind the partially disabled vehicle, which was belching an odor reminiscent of burning rubber and emitting sparks from the front passenger side’s tire rim.

Activating his emergency lights, the officer followed the vehicle, which eventually pulled into a parking lot just off SE Piperberry Way and stopped. The driver then got out of his car, stood up and put his hands in the air. The officer gave verbal commands for him to not exit his vehicle. After some delay and a repeated order to get inside, the man finally returned to his car. As the officer approached the vehicle and made contact with the driver, he reported smelling a strong odor of intoxicants. The driver’s eyes were bloodshot and watery, and his eyelids had a slight droop to them.

The officer asked the man if he knew why he was being stopped. His answer? “Just do what you need to do,” the man replied in a slurred speech. He told the officer that he was aware of his blown-out tire, but said he was just trying to get home.

After some difficulty in retrieving the man’s driver’s license, the officer began to run his name — only to once again prompt the man to get back into his car and sit until directed otherwise. He had once again exited the vehicle, placing his arms behind his back as if ready to be handcuffed. After a couple of requests, the driver climbed back inside, but not before reminding the officer to “just do what you need to do,” confirming that he would cooperate.

When the officer returned to his patrol car, the driver again exited his vehicle and placed his hands behind his back. Just as he was being prompted to return inside, a Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office deputy arrived as backup support. Once again, the driver returned to his pose of surrender. When asked if he’d voluntarily take a sobriety test, he declined but stated, “Just do what you need to do.” Getting his wish fulfilled, the man was read his Miranda rights and placed into handcuffs.

The man told officers about a date he’d previously been on that evening, which he had arranged online. He said they “had done things” but thankfully didn’t specify what that involved. He was booked for driving under the influence, with bail set at $5,000.

Sept. 21

A Bay Street convenience store clerk called police after a burly man in a wheelchair entered the store, guzzled a Gatorade, then left without paying for it. When an officer arrived, he saw an individual matching the description outside the store. The officer recognized the man from earlier contacts with him during the day. Asked what the problem was, the wheelchair-bound man told the officer that the female clerk wouldn’t take his money.

After both headed inside, the officer told the man to pay for his consumed item. The shirtless man then pulled out an imaginary wallet and peeled off nonexistent dollar bills. The clerk told the officer that mirrored what the man had done earlier when she asked him to pay for the consumed beverage and three other bottles he had placed on the counter. Only that time, she said, the man pulled from his pocket an imaginary debit card to pay for the purchase.

The officer then placed the man under arrest for third-degree theft and trespassed him off the property — this time for real.