Woman abandons car she stole after finding the drugs inside were not to her liking, police say

Editor’s note: This blotter is compiled from recent Gig Harbor police reports.

She stole his car and his dog

A man was shopping inside Home Depot, 5120 Borgen Blvd. on Jan. 24 when he came out to found his car had been stolen.

Gig Harbor police arrived to talk with the man, who told the officer he came out and found the car was gone with his dog inside it.

Another officer radioed he’d found the stolen vehicle in the St. Anthony Hospital parking lot, with the dog inside and no driver, according to the police report.

The officer went inside the hospital to look for a potential suspect.

Hospital surveillance video showed a female getting out of the car and walking toward the power line trail from the hospital back towards Home Depot and Target, according to the report.

The officer who stayed with the victim of the car theft transported him to the hospital to retrieve his dog and car.

Another officer located the suspect inside Target, detained her and brought her outside.

The woman agreed to talk to the officer, telling him she is an opiate addict.

She admitted she found the keys inside the car and stole it with the dog inside.

Her plan was to drive the car to the hospital and get help for her addiction. But, when she got in the car, she found drugs and decided she no longer wanted to seek help, according to the report.

After discovering the drugs were methamphetamine, she decided to leave the car at the hospital because that’s not her drug of choice, she told police.

The officer then collected a safe, a small bag of meth, keys and miscellaneous items from the woman, the report said.

“It was just luck that the vehicle owner had drugs in the truck,” the woman said to the officer.

The reporting officer wrote the woman would have failed booking based on new booking policies and the fact that she had Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and open sores on her back.

Instead, the case was forwarded to the Superior Court to summon and charge the woman for one count of motor vehicle theft and other applicable charges, according to the report.

He took the purse right out of her cart

While grocery shopping on Jan. 23, a woman had her purse stolen out of her cart at Safeway, 4831 Point Fosdick Dr.

The woman called 911 and told operators a man came up and grabbed the purse. Shortly after, she got an alert from her bank that someone just attempted to use her credit card at Fred Meyer a few blocks away, according to the police report.

One officer met the woman at Safeway, while another went to Fred Meyer to look for the suspect.

Safeway surveillance video showed a man reaching into the victim’s cart and taking her purse. The suspect then took a red leather wallet and exited the store.

The officer at Safeway took a picture of the suspect and sent it to the officer at Fred Meyer.

The woman told the officer the red leather wallet contained the her driver’s license, Costco card, debit and credit cards, medical cards and $35 in cash.

The officer at Fred Meyer shortly thereafter observed someone who matched the suspect’s description exiting the store.

The man saw the officer, changed directions and started to walk down a different parking lot aisle, according to the report.

The officer asked the man to stop, which he did.

The officer told him he was being detained and investigated for an incident at Safeway. The man initially denied any involvement.

He later admitted stealing the purse from a woman at Safeway and that her wallet was in his pocket along with all of the stolen debit and credit cards, the report said. He said he tried to use the debit cards inside Fred Meyer, but they were declined. He was attempting to purchase food and gift cards, he told the officer.

The officer retrieved the wallet and cards.

The officer placed the man into his car, went and returned the stolen items to the woman, then transported the man to Pierce County jail, where he was booked for theft in the second degree and identity theft in the second degree.

He raised the hammer as if he was going to hit the man

Two Gig Harbor police officers were dispatched to a suspicious person on Jan. 20 at the postal annex at 5114 Point Fosdick Dr.

The call to 911 indicated that an intoxicated driver was threatening to shoot a FedEx driver. No weapons had been seen, but the intoxicated driver suggested he had a weapon and was holding his hands behind his back, according to a police report.

When the officers arrived, they observed two men standing outside a FedEx box truck.

One man was at the front of the truck holding what appeared to be a hammer and began walking toward the other man while raising the hammer above his head.

“It appeared to me the suspect was advancing in preparation to assault the other male with the hammer or hatchet which are capable of causing substantial bodily injuries,” the officer wrote.

Officers approached the two men and the suspect immediately stopped moving toward the victim and fled in his car.

The officer radioed for incoming officers to begin setting up a perimeter.

Another officer in the area located the driver and attempted to stop him, according to the report. The suspect failed to stop, turned into Forest Grove apartment complex, and ran into a nearby wood line.

Officers learned the suspect matched the description from an incident earlier that day at the Arco gas station, 5515 38th Ave., where a firearm was allegedly displayed during an altercation.

Another officer returned to the driver’s abandoned vehicle and discovered a woman and baby in the back seat.

The woman said she is the suspect’s wife and informed officers she is blind.

The officer asked if he could check her wallet for her identification. Inside the wallet he found multiple Social Security cards and an identification card that did not belong to the woman.

She claimed the people’s cards were her friends and she was holding onto them, the report said.

“She made a comment that she was blind and didn’t know how the social security cards and identification card ended up in her wallet, even though she had previously told me she was holding onto them because they belong to a cousin and friend,” the officer wrote.

The officer recommended financial fraud charges to prosecutors and helped the woman and baby into their apartment.

Other officers located the man and detained him not far from the apartment parking lot.

“He said something to me about being intoxicated,” the officer wrote.

Two other officers walked through the parking lot in the area in an attempt to find a gun the suspect might have discarded but found nothing.

The officers transported the man to the Pierce County Jail.