Monthly Archives: June 2009

How to Keep Your Car Safe (and What to do if you Don’t)

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They’re taking cars. Going on short rides. Stealing your stuff from them. And then dumping the evidence.

Thieves have taken 30 cars in as many days in the East Bremerton area, prompting a Kitsap County Sheriff’s detectives’ investigation. But while the investigators dig into the case, chances are more cars will be taken.

Courtesy of the Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office, here’s some useful tips to safeguard yourself from car theft, as well as what to do if you become a victim of such a crime. But first a few links: hear the story of two victims of car theft here and here, and see the list of the most stolen cars in the nation here.

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A Chat Between an Officer and a Wanted Man in the Bathroom

Blogger’s Note: Strange conversation between police officers and the suspects they arrest isn’t really uncommon, as you well know if you read our Code 911 section. But this report, saved from our dusty archives, is one of the oddest I’ve seen.

It was early June when a Bremerton sergeant was patrolling Sixth Street near downtown Bremerton in the early morning hours. The sergeant reported that he’d seen a car driven by a man he recognized — someone he’d contacted on the beat in the past — who turned into a local convenience store.

The sergeant watched as a passenger from the man’s car walked “rapidly” into the store, and felt perhaps that passenger had reason to evade him. So the sergeant decided to go in the convenience store and found that the man had gone into the bathroom.

“I stood by for several minutes and could hear the paper towel dispenser rattling, the toilet flushing and the sink running at different times,” the sergeant wrote.

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The Visiting Bremerton Bear: A Close Call

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I got an email recently from Derek Wentz, who was until a few weeks ago renting a home in the West Bremerton area. After Wentz and his family had moved in early June, his former landlord called him to say that he’d missed quite a sight in what used to be his backyard.

The Wentzes moved out June 6 from a Roosevelt Avenue place. And a 250-pound black bear decided to move in June 7. The bear, which took cover in a cedar tree, was eventually tranquilized and taken away by Kitsap County Animal Control officers.

“We have two young children who enjoyed playing at the foot of the cedar tree where the bear was discovered,” Wentz wrote me. “So we were surprised, to say the least, when our former landlord informed us this evening that a bear had been located in our former ‘backyard.'”

Photo by CBC.ca is from an incident in New Jersey.

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Did Tacoma Murder Suspects Carry out Kitsap Robberies?

Arrests have now been made in a tragic killing over money at Lakewood’s Wal-Mart. And there’s now a chance that the men arrested were responsible for some robberies in Kitsap.

As you might recall, there were three takeover-style robberies in 2008 in the county in which the victims were tied up. And according to the Tacoma News Tribune’s Lights and Sirens blog, the suspects in the Wal-Mart killing may well have been responsible for the Kitsap crimes:

“Area detectives are looking into whether these suspects were involved in any unsolved robberies,” the TNT wrote. ” Among those is a string of 11 takeover-style robberies in the region, including five in Pierce County.”

Here’s a recap of the Kitsap robberies:

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Former North Kitsap Teacher’s Trial Delayed Again

Updating an earlier item, a former North Kitsap teacher’s trial has been delayed yet again.

William R. Thompson, 55, was charged last July with fourth-degree assault with sexual motivation and communication with a minor for immoral purposes. They are both gross misdemeanors punishable by up to a year in jail. The trial is now set to begin Aug. 17 in Kitsap County District Court in Port Orchard, said chief deputy prosecutor Claire Bradley.

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