Law Enforcement

n August 30 - An officer was dispatched to Colby in reference to a small child walking down the road wearing a diaper. Upon arrival, the officer met with the child and the person who notified authorities. The officer asked the child what his name was but could not understand him. The child told the officer that his mom put cartoons on the TV for him to watch while she was sleeping.

The officer looked up the boy’s information and found that the mother lived a short ways away. The officer told the child he would give him a ride home but the boy told the officer to leave him alone, ran down the street and sat in the grass. The officer drove up by the boy and by the time the officer arrived, the boy’s mother was by the boy. The boy tried to run away again and the officer ran after him, picked him up and gave him to his mother.

The officer transported the boy and his mother back to their residence. The woman put the boy in the house and told the officer that she and the boy were in her bedroom and she put cartoons on the TV for the boy to watch. She said she may have fallen asleep. The woman said she woke up and called for the boy and he replied to her so she figured he was in the house.

The woman said she woke up again and realized the boy was gone and as she was walking down the street looking for him, she received a call from a CAPD officer.

The woman showed the officer the windows in the boy’s room that the boy is able to unlock. The officer looked at the windows from the inside and saw that there was a dresser pushed up against the wall making it easy for the boy to climb on and open the windows.

The woman said that even if the dresser is not there, the boy can still open the windows. The woman said she had bought locks for the windows but the locks do not fit. The officer checked the locks and they are too large for the windows. The woman said she is going to try to screw the windows shut so the boy could not open them in the future.

The woman is on probation for child neglect so the officer called Marathon County probation and parole. They said they would not be placing a hold on the woman that day but a copy of the report was forwarded to the organization.

n September 1 - A woman observed a man on her Ring doorbell showing the middle finger and saying vulgar language. The woman believed the gesture and language was directed towards her and she wished to have the man issued a trespassing notice.

The man was given a warning for trespassing and a trespass letter for the woman’s address.

n September 2 - An officer was dispatched to a bar in Abbotsford for a noise complaint. The officer met with a man who was decent with the officer and turned the music off right away. The officer notified the man that any other subsequent complaints would result in a citation.

n September 2 - An officer was on routine patrol in the City of Colby when he observed an elderly male walking on Hwy. 13 near the Shell Gas Station. The male looked confused and had no shoes on.

At the beginning of his shift, the officer was notified that a male was missing from an assisted living facility in the area that a previous officer had located and brought back to the facility.

The man had severe dementia and had escaped through a window of the assisted living facility. The officer met with the man and asked if he would like to sit in the rear of his patrol vehicle so that he was off the highway. The man agreed.

Soon after, two females in scrubs walked up to the officer and asked if he had found the man. The officer opened the rear door to his patrol vehicle and the women positively identified the man. The officer transported the man to the assisted living facility where he was released to staff.

n September 3 - An officer was dispatched at 4:43 a.m. for suspicious activity at a gas station in Colby. Dispatch advised the officer that a customer appeared very intoxicated, was stumbling throughout the store and attempted to buy alcohol.

The officer arrived at the gas station and observed the SUV that the customer was reported to be driving to be parked in the area of the gas pumps.

The officer approached the store in his vehicle and as he did, an employee made eye contact with him and pointed at the SUV in the parking lot.

The officer observed the SUV back out of the parking lot and start to drive forward towards the parking lot exit to Hwy. 13. The officer raised his hand in the air and waved to the driver and asked if he could talk to the driver. The driver stopped the vehicle and the officer approached the driver’s side window.

As the officer approached, he could see the driver taking what appeared to be beer cans out of the cup holder and throw them on the floor on the passenger side. The officer observed two males to be inside the vehicle and the driver was wearing a black and blue shirt that matched the complainant’s description.

The officer observed the driver to have glossy, bloodshot eyes and a very lethargic demeanor. The officer made contact with the men and advised them he had received a complaint of an intoxicated male driving a vehicle. The driver said they were there for gas. The officer also observed the strong odor of intoxicants coming from the vehicle.

The officer asked the driver where he was coming from and he said Colby and proceeded to take a phone call. The driver spoke on the phone for awhile. When he finished his phone call, the officer asked the man how much he had to drink. He said three beers. The officer asked the man to turn off the vehicle and he complied.

The officer asked the man for identification and he said he had none. The man wrote down his name and birth date and agreed to perform field sobriety tests.

After performing the tests, the officer asked the man if he would be willing to perform a preliminary breath test. The man agreed and blew a 0.25. The officer placed the man under arrest for operating while under the influence. The passenger of the vehicle stated he had not drank that night and could drive the vehicle. The officer had the man take a preliminary breath test and the result of the test was 0.16. The officer instructed the man to walk home to Colby.

The officer transported the driver to the CAPD where he issued the man citations for operating without a valid license, operating while under the influence and operating with a prohibited alcohol concentration. The man was then released to a responsible party.

n September 3 - An officer was dispatched to an address in Abbotsford in reference to a staff member that was struck by a resident at the assisted living facility there.

The officer met with the employee who said that a resident had struck both her and the man’s roommate with his cane. The woman said that it did cause her pain and that she had no visible injuries from the incident.

A Clark County deputy had responded to the incident earlier that morning and had notified her that due to the man having dementia, arresting him was not what he needed and staff would have to work with his guardian to have him moved to a facility that was better equipped to handle him.

The woman understood but still wished that a report on the incident be completed. The officer met with management who told the officer they would be moving the man away from others and work on getting him transferred to another facility.