Law Enforcement
n April 12 - An officer was dispatched to a business in Colby for reports of a trespassing complaint. Upon arrival, the officer met with the manager of the business who said that a former employee had retired from the business. The manager said that the man had come back onto the property and took a propane tank that was attached to the grill outside on the patio. The manager said that the man was also seen driving around the parking lot and she suspected that the man was waiting to see if the garage would be unlocked to grab other items he claimed he left at the business when he retired.
The manager said that when he retired, the man had already taken all items he claimed were his and at that time there was nothing else left of his. The manager said that all employees sign a document stating that once their employment is ended with the company, former employees are not allowed back on the property without approval from herself or the administrator for the business. The manager said that today she was not worried about getting the propane tank back and just wanted the man warned not to return to the business without permission.
The officer went to the man’s residence and met with him. The man said he did retire in December of 2022, and that day, he wanted to have a cook out and realized he left his propane tank at the business. The man said he went and took his propane tank back and spoke to a couple residents he knew.
The man said he often used his own tools and propane tanks when working at the business. The man said he grabbed all his items except the propane tank which he had forgotten about until that day. The officer asked about the document he signed stating he needed permission to go back onto the property after his employment ended. The man said he did not know anything about that.
The officer explained that if the man needed to go back to the business, he needed to contact either of the executives of the business to get permission. If he does not, he could be cited for trespassing. The man said he understood and does not believe he would need to go back to the business for any reason.
n April 13 - An officer was dispatched to a residence in Colby for a disturbance. The officer was told that a male was at the residence with a knife and then left on foot.
Upon arrival, the officer met with a juvenile who said he was riding his bike just down the block from his residence and a kid he knew pushed him off his bike. The complainant said the kid was with another juvenile but he did not know who it was. The complainant said the kid who pushed him punched him in the face a few times and when he fell to the ground, the kid started to kick him in the ribs. The complainant said the kid then grabbed a knife out of his pocket, opened it and said “You’re dead,” to him. The complainant said the kid put the knife away and the two juveniles left. He then went home and told his mother who called 911.
The officer asked the complainant to describe the knife to him. He said it was a folding style pocket knife. As the officer was speaking to the complainant, the suspect came back to the residence. The officer placed the suspect in handcuffs for everyone’s safety. The officer frisked him for weapons and found none. The suspect said he did not have the knife and that another juvenile had it. The suspect said the complainant was talking bad about the suspect’s mother, calling her vulgar names. The suspect said he got mad and punched and kicked the complainant in the face and ribs. He said he never had a knife. The suspect said he was with a different juvenile than the one that currently had the knife. The suspect said the juvenile that was with him did have a knife but it never left the juvenile’s pocket.
The officer spoke to a representative from Clark County Social Services. The officer said he would have charges of battery and disorderly conduct use of a dangerous weapon for the suspect. The suspect was then transported to the Colby-Abbotsford Police Department.
The juvenile’s mother arrived at the department and the officer explained the situation and the charges that were being forwarded to the Clark County Juvenile Court for her son.
n April 14 - An officer was notified that a resident had called about a possible burglary in Abbotsford. The complainant said he was currently watching people take his belongings out of a storage shed that he owned. The officer arrived and spoke to the complainant who said the man that was taking items was not allowed on his property any more and that he had previously opened locked doors with a pocket knife.
The complainant said that the man was supposed to buy the building but the deal fell through and now they were there taking the complainant’s items. The complainant said another officer had been over at the suspect’s property the day prior and had warned the suspect that he was not supposed to be there anymore.
The officer went over to the suspect and two other men that were loading things into the back of the trailer. The officer asked what was going on there and was told that the suspect was storing some of his belongings there but after the deal fell through, he was told to get the belongings out of the building and he was doing just that.
The complainant said he watched them take a few sheets of aluminum and Plexiglas out and load it into the trailer though the sheets were his. The officer asked the suspect about the sheets and he allowed the complainant to go through the trailer to see if anything inside was his. The complainant found the sheets and the suspect confirmed that they were loaded by mistake. The suspect and his two helpers removed the sheets and placed them back in the same spot they were taken from.
The officer called the officer that had responded to the issue the day prior and he said that the suspect needed to get his belongings out of the property and that he set up a time between the two men to retrieve the belongings at about noon that day. He said both parties agreed on the time and that the complainant would have the doors unlocked there.
The officer told the complainant they had set up a meeting time so the suspect was actually allowed on the property at the time. The suspect said the doors were unlocked when he arrived though the complainant said he had not unlocked them. The officer stood by as the suspect grabbed the remaining items. The suspect allowed the complainant to go through the trailer one last time and he did not locate any other items that belonged to him. One item was mentioned that was not in the trailer. The suspect noted he had it at his residence and said he would drop it off at the Colby/Abbotsford Police Department in the future.
The officer clarified that the suspect was not allowed back on the property and left the scene.
n April 15 - An officer was dispatched to a residence in Abbotsford for a 911 call that was mapped to that residence. Dispatch advised they could hear breathing on the line but could not communicate with anyone. The officer arrived at the residence and knocked on the door. The officer met with two males who introduced themselves to the officer and denied calling 911 as they were sleeping.
The men said it must have been an accident because there was no emergency at the residence. The officer asked the men for identification and neither of them had identification on them. One man hesitated but gave the officer a name. The officer ran that man’s information through dispatch and was notified that the man matched a name in their system who had two outstanding warrants, one in Marathon County and one in Clark County.
The close match on the name had a similar first and last name and had an identical date of birth. The officer asked the man if the information dispatch gave him was accurate. The man said it was not him. The man then pulled out his wallet and the officer saw the man’s workplace ID in the wallet. The officer asked for it and the man gave it to him. The name and picture on the ID matched the name that was given to the officer by dispatch.
The officer then placed the man under arrest for the outstanding warrants and transported to the Clark County Jail without incident.
n April 15 - An officer was dispatched to a residence for a report of criminal damage. The caller notified dispatch that the building had a front facing window broken out sometime over night. The officer arrived and located the window. The officer took pictures of the window and noticed that the window next to the broken one was also spidered and cracked.
The building was locked and it did not appear that any objects had been thrown through the window as the Styrofoam on the inside of the window did not have any impact marks. The officer called the owner of the building and notified him of the damage. The owner said he did not know that the windows were broken and had not rented the place out for a few weeks. The man said he would come check out the damage and notify the officer when he arrived.
Upon arrival, the officer had the man fill out a lack of consent form and the man said he would contact the CAPD when he knew how much the windows would be to replace. The officer advised the man to put up some cameras to catch whoever had been causing the damage.
n April 16 - An officer took a complaint from a resident. The complainant said her vehicle was struck the day prior and that she and the striking vehicle driver had agreed to pay for the damage. The woman said that today she was met by the driver at her place of work and the man had indicated that he no longer wished to pay for the damage.
At the time of the call from dispatch, the officer was getting gas. He was approached by a separate man who said the man who was involved had called him the day prior after the incident looking for advice. The involved man told the other man he had accidentally bumped into the woman’s vehicle as he parked in a parking lot. The involved man stopped and spoke to the woman about what happened. The woman told the man that he could pay her $1,000 to fix the damage and that she would not need to get the police involved.
The man said that there was nearly no damage and did not think that was fair. The uninvolved man said that he went with the involved man to the woman’s place of work and advised the involved man to tell the woman the amount was unfair and that if she wanted more money that it cost to fix, that she would need to take the involved man to civil court. The woman then called the police.
The officer met with the woman who said her vehicle was backed into as the man parked. She was upset because the man did not have a license and should not have been driving in the first place. The woman said that she confronted the man and told him that he could pay her $1,000 for her insurance deductible and that it was less than that to fix, he would not have to pay as much.
The officer went outside to look at the damage. The woman initially pointed to a spot on her vehicle’s grill that looked like it could have been white paint transfer as the man was driving a white vehicle. The woman rubbed the area and the paint was removed. The woman pointed to two other areas of her vehicle which were on rounded areas and could not have been damaged from a single accident without having any damage to the immediate front of the car. There was a dent on the hood that appeared to be from a dropped object and not from a backing vehicle.
There was beaded water which did not help obvious marks stand out but the officer did not observe any obvious damage to the vehicle other than a slightly bent license plate. The officer told the woman that next time, she needed to report the accident immediately and if she wanted to take the man to court, she would need to go through a civil court. The officer told her that he did not see any damage but would take some pictures and note in a report if she needed it for insurance purposes.
