Yuma, Arizona - This was just one of those weeks……….
An officer noticed a car parked in the entrance of an alley and a guy, let’s call him Rob, dressed all in black next to it in the wee hours of the morning. Rod looked back at the officer and took off running. He ran down the alley and jumped into a backyard like a ninja warrior. Rod circled back around, got in his car and took off. The officer saw Rod blow through a stop sign and he tried to pull Rod over. Even full lights and sirens could not get Rod to pull over, so the officer backed off and ended the attempt at a traffic stop. Another officer saw Rod and he also attempted to pull him over. Apparently, Rod was not in the mood to talk and he took off like a bat out of Hadis in excess of 20 mph over the speed limit. The second officer shut down the attempted traffic stop as well and gave the last direction of travel. The vehicle was located a few minutes later, unoccupied and damaged from hitting a sign in the medium. This was not the end for Rod. It turns out Rod took his mom’s car without permission. He may be glad he got jammies vs mom’s wrath, although I’m sure that will come soon enough.
These two, let’s call them Mike and Maud, were involved in a car accident in the afternoon hours. When officers arrived, Maud was in the driver’s seat and Mike was in the passenger’s seat. Several witnesses stated they saw Maud get out of the passenger’s side and switch seats with Mike. While the aroma of alcohol filled the inside of the vehicle, the officer was asking who was driving. Maud swore she was driving and Mike swore he was not. Mike was asked to exit the vehicle and along with him came the smell of alcohol. Mike swayed back and forth as the officer was talking to him. Mike continued to deny driving even after being told what witnesses had seen him switch seats. Mike refused the field sobriety test and was processed for DUI at the station. Come to find out, Mike was driving on a suspended license, blew over twice the legal limit and had a prior DUI. That shed some light as to why he switched seats. To top it off, the accident wasn’t even Mike’s fault. I guess the solar system aligned itself and helped get Mike off the road. Mike was given jammies and flip flops and some time to ponder what happened.
This guy, let’s call him Jimmy, decided to steal from a thrift store. Officers spotted Jimmy riding his getaway skateboard. One officer hit his lights and siren to get Jimmy to stop, but he grabbed his skateboard and took off running. Let the cardio workout begin. Jimmy led the fun run down the road and into an alley. Just as the officer was starting to yell, the fun run cadence Jimmy tripped and put a halt to it. The stolen property was recovered and Jimmy got jammied up.
We had a call for a welfare check on an elderly woman. The caller said the woman had not been seen for a few days and nobody was answering the door. Her car was in the driveway and the mail was stacking up. Entry was made into the residence and the woman was found on the floor, but alive. She had fallen several days ago and was unable to get up. This was a good ending, but unfortunately not all of them are. If you have an elderly neighbor who is living alone please check on them regularly. It only takes a second and could save someone’s life.
And finally…..a possible residential burglary in progress call turned out to be a juvenile who lives there trying to sneak another juvenile into the house without the parent’s permission. What their true intentions were we will never know, but I bet it will be a while before they try that again.
Week in Review
Between November 7th and November 13th, 2019 we had 2,181 calls for service that came into our dispatch center, which generated 196 police reports. Here is a list of some of the calls for service that we handled:
911 calls –869
Alarm calls – 34
Assaults - 9
Burglaries – 14
Criminal damage – 10
Disorderly conduct/Disturbances – 65
Domestic disturbances – 46
Fraud – 19
Noise disturbance – 32
Overdose - 3
Reckless driver - 23
Runaway juveniles/Offense – 6
Calls for service at our schools –17
Sex Offenses -6
Shoplifts/Thefts – 56
Shots fired – 3
Stolen vehicles – 11
Suspicious subject/Incident/Vehicle – 92
Traffic accidents –73
Trespass – 22
Our Animal Control Unit responded to 138 calls for service and our officers made 161 traffic stops, issuing over 51 citations.