The Star - News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area

Grand Coulee Police

4/6 - A city employee reported the seats had been broken on the seesaws at Shane Proctor Park on SR-174. The employee believes someone broke the seats using rocks. She also reported that at an earlier time someone had broken into a shed in the same park.

- A driver was pulled over near Midway and Federal avenues for having studded snow tires on past the April 1 deadline to remove them. She was cited for that, as well as for driving with a suspended license and no insurance. 

- Police looked inside a Hill Street apartment that appeared broken into, as reported by the apartment manager. The apartment had been unoccupied for months and was in disarray already. Police said to call if anything more happened at the apartment. 

4/7 - Police checked on a security alarm that went off at an F Street residence. The alarm company said someone entered the wrong passcode and that it was a false alarm. Police spoke to a woman who was checking on the residence for a real estate company.

- Police responded to a report of three little pigs running loose in the area of E and F Streets, getting into people’s yards. There have been multiple complaints about the pigs over time. The mother of one of the owners spoke to police through the door but wouldn’t open it. The owners of the pigs refused to come to the door. Police wrote a public nuisance infraction. The mother suggested the officer nail it to the door as she refused to take it. The officer noted in his report that as much as he’d have liked to have nailed it to the door, he opted to leave it in the pigs’ owners’ vehicle, which had an open window. No word yet on whether they squealed “wee!” all the way home.

4/8 - Police responded to Bay Area Drive where a woman said she had broken bones, had hit her head, and was hallucinating from alcohol detox. An officer found her to be uninjured and smelling of alcohol. He helped her into an ambulance once it arrived.

- A woman passed out on a picnic table in front of the Teepee Drive-In was told to leave. She walked towards a bus stop to catch a bus.

- An officer responded to River Drive in Coulee Dam to a report of shots fired that tribal officers were unable to respond to because they were busy. The officer saw someone he knew working in his shop who said he had used an airgun earlier. But the police didn’t see anything else. 

4/9 - A woman on D Street reported damage to her yard, an eight-foot circle that was dug up and hoof prints consistent with pigs. Officer had issued a public nuisance citation a couple days prior to an owner of pigs nearby that had gotten loose multiple times. 

- Police responded to a report of a dog wearing a pink dress running around on Burdin Avenue and Third Street. The owner was notified and retrieved the dog.

- A man reported a shot heard near Alcan Road. He also said he’d read on a Grand Coulee-centric Facebook page that there was a poacher in the area.

4/10 - An officer responded to Ferry Street in Coulee Dam to a report of a suspicious person using a metal detector. He found the man on the grassy area between the street and sidewalk. The man said he talks to police regularly because of using the metal detector and that he had permission from a council member to dig for wheat pennies. He pulled several from his pocket. He described the council member as short with a white beard, but didn’t know his name. The officer said he was sure the city wouldn’t allow the man to dig on city property. He called a Coulee Dam officer and found that council members didn’t have permission to dig even if they wanted to. The man left without incident. There was no damage to the grassy area. 

4/11 - An officer gave a hospital patient a courtesy ride to a friend’s house on Columbia Drive in Coulee Dam.

4/12 - A man was reportedly going through cars near the apartments on Continental Heights. Police saw a suspect, a man who said he wasn’t going through cars but looking for cigarette butts on the ground, which he is known to do frequently.

4/13 - An alarm was activated at the back door of an F Street residence. No one was inside and the door was secured. The wind may have been involved. 

Coulee Dam Police

4/4 - Dogs running loose on Ferry Street were reportedly preventing people from getting into their cars. An officer returned the dogs to the proper yard.

4/5 - A brown purse was found at Freedom Point Plaza on a bench. Police searched the purse for identification, which they found. They also found a paper towel wrapped around a glass pipe with white residue in it. 

4/10 - Police responded to a report of people knocking on doors and walls at the Columbia River Inn. While responding, an officer noted a bumper lying on the ground near Lincoln and Grant avenues, but left it there to respond to the door- knocking report, which resulted in finding nothing. Several hours later, at a one-vehicle collision on River Drive, the officer saw that one of the vehicles was missing a bumper. He retrieved the bumper he’d seen on the ground earlier and it matched the vehicle. A suspect in custody said he was extremely intoxicated and it could have been he who’d driven the car, but he didn’t remember. He and the people with him might also have been knocking on doors, he said, but he didn’t remember. The man had been found by tribal police near Greene Field (the high school athletic field) in the passenger seat with no one else around. Coulee Dam Police took charge of the incident. The man was taken to Okanogan County Jail after taking a breathalyzer test that showed a 0.152 blood alcohol content, well above the .08 legal limit.