Law Enforcement

n September 11 - An officer took a report of damaged property at a Colby residence at about 7:20 a.m. The officer met with the complainant who showed the officer the east side of his house. There was a set of tire tracks in the lawn that showed a vehicle had been traveling on an adjacent street and instead of turning, the vehicle continued straight, jumped the curb and drove through the complainant’s lawn past his house. The tracks go along the woods, into his backyard running over a downspout and damaging a kid’s sandbox.

The tracks continued southbound across the neighboring property before turning westbound across the neighbor’s yard and coming back up onto the roadway. The complainant said the only thing damaged was the sandbox which was valued at $100. The man said his dogs had gone crazy around 4-4:30 a.m. He said he heard the rocks being kicked outside the house around that time and thought it was a deer.

The officer spoke with the neighboring property owner who said that nothing on his property was damaged including the lawn but did get video of a vehicle passing his house at that same time frame. The property owner sent the officer the video but due to weather conditions, a vehicle description could not be taken from it.

n September 12 - An officer was asked to look into a driving incident that occurred earlier that day.

The officer made phone contact with a woman and her boyfriend who stated they were at Cherokee Park around dusk. The woman said they had set up fishing poles near the river but started hearing sticks breaking and movement in the woods. The woman said she did not think anything of it but then they noticed a male individual on a motorcycle near the parking area of the park. The woman said they packed up their belongings and the male on the motorcycle started to rev his engine at them.

The woman said she and her boyfriend drove into the City of Colby traveling north on Hwy 13. The woman’s boyfriend was driving and said he observed the motorcycle rapidly accelerating behind him in order to catch up with them. The man said the motorcycle was weaving in between cars. The woman said they were traveling near Elderberry Road when a van pulled onto Hwy 13 and was also following them. The boyfriend stated both the motorcycle and van were driving very close to him and attempting to push him around in his lane of travel. The boyfriend said this continued until the motorcycle turned west onto East Spruce Street and the van turned west onto East Birch Street. The woman said she was uncomfortable staying at her residence so they drove to a nearby city for awhile.

The van was described as a Chevrolet, silver in color with rust. He described the motorcycle being black/tan/silver, with a front windshield, black saddle bags and a raccoon tail hanging off the rear of the bike. The man described the rider of the motorcycle wearing a blue suit blazer and a full helmet with a yellow/orange emblem on the back.

The officer advised the couple to call law enforcement if the vehicles ever approached them again.

The officer checked an area of Abbotsford west of Hwy 13 and did not locate a motorcycle. He located a silver Chevrolet van and did not locate any other vehicles matching the descriptions.

n September 12 - An officer took a complaint of possible found drug paraphernalia. The complainant said he had recently bought a property in the City of Abbotsford and has been renting the property out. The new tenant had notified him of the finding. The tenant had de-limbed a pine tree in the back yard of the property and once the trimmed branches were removed, he found what he suspected were used drug pipes.

The landlord said his tenant called him asking what he should do as he did not want to get in trouble with the property that was not his. The landlord said he immediately called police. The officer traveled to the property and secured three glass pipes which appeared to be used marijuana pipes. The items will be packaged into evidence and destroyed.

n September 14 - An officer was dispatched to the intersection of East Maple Street and Hwy 13 in Abbotsford in reference to two dogs running at large and crossing the roadway.

Upon arrival, the officer observed a black and brown colored dog with no collar laying in the grass near the intersection and a black in color dog walking in the parking lot of a local business. The officer attempted to get the black and brown dog into his squad car but the dog kept walking away. An employee of the business was able to get ahold of the black dog and the officer placed the dog in the squad car.

The officer transported that dog to the Abbotsford city kennel. The officer went back for the other dog but was unable to catch it as it kept running around a residence on N Fifth Street. A neighbor came out and told the officer that the dogs do belong to the address that the dog was running around. The neighbor said the dogs had escaped last week but someone came to get them. No one was home at the residence.

The officer went back later that day and met with a resident of the address the dog was previously running around. The resident said he got both dogs inside of the residence and that the dogs had started to dig under a fence he had put up. The man said he would keep the dogs kenneled until he can get the fence secured. The officer warned the man but said in the future the man could be cited for an Abbotsford ordinance that prohibits animals from running at large.

n September 15 - An officer was told that a man had come to the police department to field a complaint of dogs going to the bathroom on a property he owns in Abbotsford. The officer was told that the dogs probably belong to a duplex north of the property.

The officer went to the duplex and met with a man. The man said that he does tie up his dog on the south side of his property to go out but did not think it was able to get onto the neighbor’s property.

The officer asked if he could shorten the chain he uses for his dog so there would be no question of what property the dog was going to the bathroom on. The man agreed.

n September 16 - An officer responded to a driving complaint in the City of Abbotsford. The officer met with a woman and her boyfriend who reported having issues with vehicles not stopping for the school bus while their child was being picked up. The woman said they had issues with this when her son was getting picked up on Pine Street so the bus company suggested that they move the pick up to right in front of their house.

The woman said there was another instance where a vehicle passed the bus without stopping and that incident was reported along with the license plate. That morning, a vehicle was traveling too fast coming up to the bus again. The woman said she actually had to hold out her hand and partially walk into the road to get the vehicle to stop. The woman said the vehicle did stop but that it would not have if she had not been there. The woman asked that CAPD perform extra patrol in the area around the time the child would be picked up by the bus. The officer told the woman he would notify other members of the department of her request.

n September 16 - An officer was dispatched to a local business at 8:27 p.m. in reference to a bag found with possible drug equipment inside of it. Upon the officer’s arrival, he met with an employee who showed the officer the bag which contained multiple clean and unused needles, a torch style lighter and a small container of perfume.

The employee said a man had come in asking for a lost bag and was now in the showers at the store. Officers waited for the man to exit the showers and then followed him outside. There, the man entered a vehicle and officers suspected the man to be under the influence of methamphetamine.

The man then exited the vehicle and went back inside the store. K9 Dodge was deployed for a free air sniff of the vehicle and alerted to a controlled substance near the driver’s side of the vehicle. Officers went back towards the store to make contact with the man. He walked out of the door, past an officer, said the vehicle was not his and kept walking.

The officer told the man to stop and he reiterated that the vehicle was not his and he did not have to talk to the officers because he is an American. The officer tried to get the man to stop multiple times before getting in front of the man and told him to stop. The man was detained due to a positive K9 alert on his vehicle. The man was placed in handcuffs due to his uncooperative attitude.

The officers searched the man’s car and found two pen shafts that had a white residue inside of them. Nothing else was located inside of the car.

The man refused to identify himself and when a Clark County Deputy brought a mobile finger print scanner to help identify the man, he tensed his hands and would not comply with officers’ demands to place his finger on the scanner.

The man was never identified by officers. He was placed under arrest for resisting arrest and obstructing for a failure to identify and was transported to the Marathon County Jail. There, the man was identified as a 44-year-old Merrill man. The man had multiple warrants out for his arrest including a felony DOC warrant for dangerous drug, Marathon County warrant for resisting arrest and another Marathon County warrant.

The pen tubes tested positive for methamphetamine and a possession of drug paraphernalia charge was added onto the man’s charges.

n September 17 - An officer was dispatched to an Abbotsford address in response for a child custody dispute and possible drunk driver.

The officer was greeted by a man who said his ex-girlfriend showed up at his house, took his child and was possibly drunk.

The officer drove past the area the man had reported the woman to be traveling in but did not see any vehicles. The officer spoke to the man at his residence.

The man said he was sleeping and heard someone banging on his door and ringing the doorbell nonstop. The man went to the door and observed his ex-girlfriend to be outside. The man said the woman asked him if she could have their child and he told her no. The man said he believed the woman to be heavily intoxicated because she was not walking well and had the strong odor of alcohol.

The man stated the couple argued but no physical interaction ensued. The woman eventually left with their child. The couple did not have a custody agreement and the officer said he would speak with the woman. The officer learned that the woman was on probation with rules of absolute sobriety and not to have contact with the man. Probation and parole stated they were going to issue a warrant for the woman.

Later that morning, an officer and a Clark County Sheriff’s Deputy met with the woman. The woman’s story did not correlate with the man’s as she said she had not been drinking and was only at the man ‘s house to ask if the man would drive her to the hospital because she was sick.

The officers asked the woman to take a preliminary breath test which came back with a result of 0.083. The Clark County Deputy then addressed the probation warrant for the woman.

n September 18 - An officer responded to a report of a vehicle that was driving erratically. The officer pulled up behind the vehicle and followed it as it exited Highway 29 and traveled south onto North Division Street in Colby. The officer noticed the vehicle driving over the white center line of the southbound lanes. The officer initiated a traffic stop and made contact with the driver.

The officer could smell a strong odor of an alcoholic beverage coming from inside the vehicle. The officer asked the driver and passenger if they had been drinking and the driver said he had had three beers.

The officer returned to his squad car and learned that the driver did not have a valid Wisconsin driver’s license. The officer asked the man to perform the standardized field sobriety tests to ensure he was OK to drive and the man agreed.

He then asked the man to take a preliminary breath test to which the man said he would. The result of that test was a 0.207.

The officer then placed the man under arrest for operating a vehicle while intoxicated. The officer transported the man to the Colby-Abby Police Department and filled out citations for OWI, operating without a valid driver’s license, and prohibited alcohol concentration. The man was then released to a responsible party.