Arcata Police Log: Wronged, They Yearned To Confront Their Antagonists, But It Was Not To Be
• Thursday, January 10 10:25 p.m. A driver in a Valley West motel parking lot may have mistaken “checking in” for “backing in,” as the latter is what he did with his car to a room. No one was hurt.
• Friday, January 11 2:25 a.m. A woman wrapped in a blanket came to APD’s front door and used the courtesy phone to say that her ex was threatening her in her sleep. She said police need to fax things she had written down over to Shasta County police. With that, she wandered away toward F Street.
11:45 a.m. Every day, a man shows up to “guard the front door” of a suspected Ariel Way grow house.
11:52 a.m. A bicyclist reported that he had been riding near the Giuntoli Lane roundabout in dark, rainy weather with no headlamp when a truck cut him off. This forced him into the center of the roundabout. He picked himself up off the ground, got on his bike and rode over to a nearby shopping center, where he found a white truck with utility boxes that looked similar to the one that knocked him over, but he couldn’t be certain. He wasn’t even sure that the driver could have seen him back at the roundabout, due to the conditions and circumstances. He waited 45 minutes for the driver to come out to the truck so he could talk to him about it, but the driver never appeared.
12:43 p.m. A lower H Street resident with expertise in summoning emergency services called to ask for a welfare check on two of his moribund friends, one wasted on meth and the other all drunked up. Police found them OK, and the caller was “provided resources.”
2:15 p.m. And oh, how they pranced, the black mutt and golden retriever who cavorted about Park Avenue and Shirley Boulevard.
2:20 p.m. Two 11th Street workers left their vehicles unattended for less than an hour, and in that time, thieves looted both. About $900 in fishing equipment was lifted from the back of one truck, and the other vehicle’s registration information was purloined via a wing window.
4:06 p.m. Someone purporting to be the treasurer of Earth Church International reported the embezzlement of $43,000 from the organization. The caller was advised to gather documentation and recontact police.
4:21 p.m. The father of a student at Arcata Elementary School reportedly told two boys there that he would “kick their asses” and “make them eat their lunch trays.” A caller said the boys’ parents were upset that the staff was aware of the man’s statements, but hadn’t reported him for them. Police were asked to warn the man that he was not to return to the school under pain of trespass.
6:39 p.m. A lower H Street resident known for fanciful excursions in emergency resource squandering called to ask assistance with a fibromyalgia attack. As an ambulance was dispatched, he called again to say that he had “fallen and he couldn’t get up.”
6:45 p.m. A woman reportedly stole a cell phone and $400 to go buy heroin at the Royal Inn.
7:08 p.m. A woman said she had information that someone had put out a “hit” on her. She also wanted to know about some writings she left at the station. A conversation with an officer didn’t go well. Described as “very uncooperative and combative,” she left the station.
• Saturday, January 12 1:11 a.m. An R Street resident reported someone breaking into her home. She couldn’t tell if the intruder was still there because she was calling from the bedroom. Police cleared the residence, finding no sign of the burglar.
1:55 a.m. A woman called to ask that police come and jump her battery, but they don’t do that. A tow service was called.
2:47 a.m. A Union Street resident called from her bedroom, reporting that someone had opened her door. That would be her roommate.
7:51 a.m. When an H Street business owner discovered two campers in the back area, she asked them to leave. They refused. She asked again, with the same result. Police came and warned them away on pain of trespassing.
2:03 p.m. An H Street business that doesn’t pay its advertising bills reported three youths stealing $25 off the counter and running down the alley because stealing is wrong.
2:35 p.m. Something named “Steve” was drunk and argumentative at a Fourth Street market. He was warned about trespassing and arrested on a public drunkenness charge.
3:45 p.m. A Plaza hot dog vendor reported backing into a parked car. The owner wasn’t around, so he left his information on the damaged car.
7:14 p.m. A car with two occupants, a man and a women, slowly cruised through the area of 27th Street and Alliance Road several times.
8:44 p.m. A white wicker chair valued at $200 was stolen from the porch of a 14th Street care home.
9:04 p.m. A large woman in a small black car with a female passenger and a child in the back seat was slurring her words and nodding off in the drive-through lane at a Valley West golden arches. When police arrived 13 minutes later, she was gone.
10:44 p.m. A man in a 49ers shirt fought with, lacerated the head of and apparently robbed a man during a fight in a Plaza alley.
• Sunday, January 13 1:25 a.m. A 12th Street woman was annoyed – at the people either fighting or partying in the van out front, and the dispatcher, who asked too many questions about the van guys she was reporting. So she hung up.
2:08 a.m. Things weren’t much better over on I Street, where a drunken man sat on the sidewalk outside a woman’s house, yelling and screaming at her and her roommates. Howly-boy went to jail.
10:43 a.m. Garbage gleaners glommed onto and into the Fire Department’s dumpster out back of the Main Station.
10:55 a.m. A pair of boyfriends spent the evening and morning arguing and breaking up with each other in a G Street apartment. The sister of one called police because she was afraid of an assault. Police stood by as property was removed.
11:22 a.m. A man visiting his family in Arcata called reporting his truck missing. He’d left it on the Plaza with the keys locked inside for some reason, and now he couldn’t find it. Police ran the plate and found that it had been towed by the CHP, which hadn’t been amused by the man’s creative parking.
2:31 p.m. Citizens hailed an officer to report a man with an Afro hairstyle and backpack throwing bottles at cars. He was arrested on a public drunkenness charge.
3:29 p.m. A woman reported an ex-boyfriend texting her from Florida, or maybe Las Vegas. He was advising her to keep an eye on her children, issuing bon mots such as “I hope your kids both die.” An officer called the man, who said he had had a week-long affair with the woman in Miami over New Year’s, and she had given him an STD. He said he had no intention of coming to California, and would stop contacting her.
5:22 p.m. A car’s tires were slashed in the 900 block of F Street.
• Monday, January 14 8:18 a.m. A mother reported her son having struck with his car a bicyclist who had been riding against traffic on Old Arcata Road. The biker didn’t need assistance, but said that her ankle hurt.
11:11 a.m. A homeless woman had been hanging around a Union Street church for a week or so, but the proximity to godliness hadn’t exactly uplifted her temperament. Rather, she had become increasingly aggressive and after services the day before, had attacked a parishioner, scratched the person’s neck and taken and broken a cell phone.
12:02 p.m. A woman called police from an H Street store to say that she was being harassed and didn’t want to talk to police. She was extremely irate and cursing, and said she had to go pick up her kids .
12:08 p.m. A man in a blue flannel shirt and “partial beard” went into the same business, made threats and threw a glass jar at someone.
1:27 p.m. A woman who took methamphetamine the day before suffered extremely negative effects. She was sweating profusely, talking nonsense and pulling her hair out. The woman was taken to the hospital.
3:27 p.m. A woman who uses an I Street store’s bathroom to shoot up misery-inducing chemicals was detained by staff. Police were asked to warn her about trespassing.
• Tuesday, January 15 7:50 a.m. A school building on Bayside Road was reported ransacked.
9 a.m. A man reported his watch and jacket being embezzled six months ago. He’d given the watch to the person to be cleaned.
9:26 a.m. As a woman walked on the corner of Eighth and H streets, a traveler in a dark hat pulled down his pants and fondled himself. He was arrested on a charge of indecent exposure.
10:16 a.m. An officer conducted a traffic stop on someone who consented to a voluntary search. This turned up a small baggie of white crystalline substance. The person said he found it in Eureka and wished to turn it in to police. The baggie was taken and the person warned.
12:29 p.m. A woman seen spray-painting the sidewalk at 17th Street and Alliance Road was arrested on a malicious mischief charge, and a girl turned over to her grandmother.
1:19 p.m. A youth being taken for mental health treatment said he didn’t want to travel there with his mother due to feelings of violence, but was willing to go there with an officer.
2:03 p.m. A woman got a job through a local university’s employment website, and received two checks in payment. The first place at which she tried to cash them said to do so at the Post Office, but there she was told that the checks were fake. She complained to the employer, who sent another check to cover the first two. It was also fake.
2:49 p.m. A woman running on Marsh trails encountered people with dogs, one leashed and another loose. The unleashed dog charged her, and when she screamed at the owners to take control of it, they didn’t take her seriously, responding as though she was overreacting. She tried to “scope out” the Marsh’s parking areas to see if she could spot their vehicle, but they never emerged from the Marsh while she was there.
2:55 p.m. A garishly painted bus has been parked in the same place on lower G Street for two months, reported a citizen, with no one going in or out. Compositional elements of the vehicle’s art include a naked lady covered in places with leaves, plus the mandatory rainbow and heart.
