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Police beat: A summary report of Craig Police Department activity for March 2012

Walt Vanatta, Craig Police Chief
Walt Vanatta
6-13PoliceBeat__Vanatta

Crime summary:

The police department responded to 1,179 requests for service in March, and community service officers responded to 103 requests for service.

Crimes of the month (written by Administrative Sgt. John Forgay):

Shoplifting crimes seem to be increasing, mostly involving food items. It’s not really a surprise, and neither are the occasional gas thefts, considering today’s economy.

However, there are employees who believe they are deserving of little gratuities by way of pilfering business merchandise. In one case it involved an apparent fondness for shrimp — more than $300 worth of the tasty little sea creatures. Well, like one cooking method, this got the suspect in “hot water,” and the eventual process of connecting with law enforcement on a personal basis. Things took a more dramatic turn when it was discovered the suspect was working under a fictitious name because under his real name he was wanted in another jurisdiction for a felony. That felony? Yep, larceny, or lawyerese for theft. Good luck on the shrimp dinners in jail.



A traffic stop resulted in one party being arrested on an outstanding warrant. It appeared the suspect had been drinking and when this was mentioned by the officer, the subject stated a couple of times that he had drank “way too much.” Such activity can often cause a suspect to make a lot of spontaneous comments, some too honest and some questionable. In this case, the first comment on the drinking seemed right on, but the second comment was questionable. When some controlled substances were found in the pocket of the pants the subject was wearing, he boldly said, “You’re not going to believe this, but these aren’t my pants.” You’re right on again — we aren’t going to believe that.

Here’s another “you can’t make this stuff up” incident: A 40-year-old male comes to the Moffat County Public Safety Center after getting directions at a local convenience store. He explains to officers that the night before he was in a bar in Idaho with his brother and “things got suspicious. (There was no true explanation about what was suspicious, other than the bartender asking him for a tip.) After a short fight with his own brother, he left the bar intoxicated and drove with his lights out to avoid detection (from who or what?).



Fearing he would be seen, he tried to steal a dump truck, but immediately determined he did not know how to drive a dump truck. Duh.

Next, he found a nice dually Dodge with the keys in it and off he drove, away from Idaho and the “suspicious” things, through Wyoming and into Craig America, hitting a deer along the way.

Aggravated motor vehicle theft got him a room behind bars. Seems just showing up in Craig and turning himself in would rate high on the “suspicious” scale. Could be those big antennas on top of the Sandrocks. Suspicious, don’t you think?

Community service:

Community Service Officers Connie Davis, Josh Wright and Jill Nelson handled the following calls in March:

• Red-tagged 12 abandoned vehicles. No vehicles were towed.

• No weed complaints.

• No code violations.

• Twenty-five junk/trash violations.

• Nine administrative warnings for abandoned vehicles were issued.

• Eight parking violation warnings were issued.

• One parking citation was issued.

• One code citation was issued.

Miscellaneous:

• On March 5 and 6, records technician Terrianne Wheeler participated in the Rio Blanco County Children’s Health Fair in Meeker. Wheeler advised participants on the proper installation of child restraint systems (car seats), and distributed information on current laws regarding child restraint systems.

• Officer testing took place Feb. 6. Two officers have been hired to fill the positions vacated by Carolyn Miller and Frank Schmedeke.

Miller resigned as domestic violence/sexual assault specialist effective Dec. 7, 2011.

Corporal Travis Young was selected to fill this position. The date of his actual transfer into investigations will be somewhat dependent upon when the two new officers hired have completed the training program.

Officer Mike Edwards was selected to fill the position of corporal, which was vacated when Travis Young was selected to fill the detective position.

On March 20, we offered a conditional offer of employment to Jeff Bond. Jeff has been working as an officer for the Hayden Police Department. On March 23, we hired the second officer. Mark Brown comes to us from the Grand Junction Police Department. He has more than 10 years of experience, the last four as an SRO in Grand Junction. While he likes being in Grand Junction, his children live here and he wants to be closer to them. April 9 is the start date for Jeff and Mark.

Training:

• On March 7, police officers attended Sudden In-Custody Death Syndrome and Use of Force training at Moffat County High School. All personnel attended Blood Borne Pathogens training and CIRSA training — The Risk is the Routine — A New Look at Accident Prevention at the Public Safety Center.

Several officers and civilian employees have completed courses through video and online training by CIRSA.

Upcoming events:

• It was Click It or Ticket time with the enforcement period running from April 2 through 8. We had 23 hours during this time to actively enforce primary (child) and secondary seatbelt laws through various traffic related contacts.

• DARE graduation is scheduled for either May 9 or 10 at Craig Middle School.

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