COLBY-ABBOTSFORD POLICE

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_ March 27 - An officer was on patrol in Abbotsford when he noticed a man pushing a shopping cart down Pine Street. The cart was later found abandoned at the corner of Pine and North Fourth Avenue. The officer contacted the local grocery store and confirmed that the cart had been taken from their lot without permission.

The officer was able to identify the man he saw pushing the cart and also learned that multiple carts had been left in the same area. The officer met with the man at his apartment, and he admitted to taking the cart, but said he was going to take it back. He also showed the officer another shopping cart he had in his closet, and said he was planning to return that one as well. The officer told him that it was illegal to remove shopping carts from the store’s property. The man said he is new to town and didn’t know that. The officer issued him a theft citation. The man said he would no longer take carts home with him.

_ March 30 - An officer responded to an Abbotsford residence in reference to a family disturbance. When he arrived, a woman was packing luggage into a vehicle in the driveway. She said she was moving out, but everything was OK.

The officer met with the owner of the house, who said she recently let her brother and his girlfriend move in with them because they had fallen on hard times. They brought their three children with them, and had been living with the homeowner, her boyfriend and her daughter. She said her brother and his girlfriend had been arguing a lot, but nothing physical happened.

After the latest argument, the homeowner said they agreed to move out. The officer spoke to all of the other parties involved, and they all agreed that nothing physical happened.

_ March 31 - An officer met with two women at the police station to discuss a harassment complaint involving one of their co-workers. One of the women said she had befriended the coworker when he first moved to the area, and she helped him out a lot. She said she was not interested in entering a romantic relationship with him, but he was.

Over the past couple weeks, she said he has texted or called her multiple times a day, has showed up at her house and followed her around in his vehicle. The complainant said she told him to stop contacting her and she blocked him on social media, but he continues to find ways of contacting her. She said she has tried avoiding him at work, but he finds opportunities to talk with her, so she’s even considered not going to work.

The officer went and spoke to the co-worker at his residence. He agreed to stop speaking to the complainant. The officer warned him to stay away from the complainant and to report any instances when she tries to initiate contact with him.

_ March 31 - An officer was notified of a harassment complaint from an Abbotsford man who had previously been arrested after an incident involving his friend. The man who was arrested said his friend had threatened to “bury” him. He also showed the officer text messages that appeared to be threatening.

The officer spoke to the man’s friend, who denied threatening the complainant but did admit to calling him a vulgar name. The officer advised him to cease any contact with the complainant. The same was said to the complainant about his friend.

_ April 2 - An officer was on patrol in Abbotsford when he noticed a vehicle cut through a business parking lot in order to bypass the lights at Highway 13 and Spruce Street. The officer ran the vehicle’s license plates, which were listed as suspended.

The officer pulled the vehicle over and met with the driver, who identified himself with a South Carolina ID card. When asked why he cut through the parking lot, he said he got lost after exiting a nearby gas station. He admitted that his driver’s license was suspended.

Another officer arrived on scene, and a K-9 sniff indicated the presence of drugs in the vehicle. When the officer asked the driver if there were any drugs in the vehicle, he looked down at the cup holder in the center console and then said no. A search of the vehicle uncovered a metal pen shaft with burnt marijuana residue. The driver said the vehicle was not his, so he wasn’t sure how long it had been there. Since he was the one driving the vehicle at the time, he was issued citations for possession of drug paraphernalia and driving with without a valid license.

_ April 2 - An officer was dispatched to a hit-and-run accident on North Fourth Avenue in Abbotsford. The officer was told that a vehicle with a female driver had struck a light pole before leaving the area.

The officer located the light pole and could see that a cover over the bolts was bent upward. The officer reviewed security footage from the nearby apartments, and could see the vehicle running into the pole after it appeared the driver hit the gas pedal instead of the brakes. A male passenger got out and backed the vehicle up. Both the driver and the passenger looked over the damage before the male party left in the vehicle.

The officer was able to locate the driver’s apartment, and she admitted to hitting the pole. She also said she was only 14, but her male passenger thought it was OK for her to drive a short distance. When asked why she didn’t report the accident, she said she was afraid to. The officer told her that she would be cited for driving without a license and hit-and-run with property damage. He said it would be up to the property manager to decide if she needs to cover the cost of fixing the pole.

The officer also spoke to the 17-year-old male passenger. He said he didn’t think it would be a problem for the 14-year-old to drive. He said he had come home to tell his parents and was planning on reporting the accident. The officer spoke to his mother, who confirmed that her son had told her about the accident. She said they did not have insurance on the vehicle.

_ April 2 - An officer responded to a report of juveniles starting a fire while playing basketball at Red Arrow Park. When the officer arrived, he saw one of the juveniles sitting by a pile of branches that was smoldering and smoking. He said he started the fire because he was bored.

The officer gave the juvenile a jug of water from his squad car and told him to put the fire out. The juvenile did so and also cleaned up the branches. The offi cer asked him why he wasn’t at home. He said his mom was at work, but she knew he was out playing basketball. The officer said he would follow-up with the boy’s mother, and instructed him and his friend to go home.

Two other juveniles were there playing basketball. The officer told them to go home as well due to the governor’s stayat- home order.

_ April 2 - An officer responded to a loose dog complaint in Colby. The complainant said her neighbor’s dogs had come into her yard and almost attacked her own dog before she got inside. The officer met with the neighbor and informed her of the complainant. She said her dogs were outside for a short time that day, but she didn’t think her dogs would attack like that. The woman had been warned in the past, so she was issued a citation for allowing her dogs to run at large.

_ April 2 - An officer was dispatched to an Abbotsford apartment in reference to a noise complaint. The officer met with the complainant, who said the neighbors were playing their music and disturbing her and her child. She said this happens frequently, and the music usually starts at around 11 p.m.

The officer did not hear loud music from outside the neighbor’s apartment, but he could hear a TV when he put his ear to the door. The officer met with the neighbor, who said she wasn’t playing any music, and the only noise would be coming from her TV. The officer did not believe the TV was abnormally loud, but he told her it was enough to disturb her downstairs neighbor. She apologized and said she would turn it down.

_ April 3 - An officer was dispatched to a local assisted living facility in reference to a disturbance. The facility’s assistant director reported that a resident’s daughter was refusing to leave after walking into the facility in violation of COVID-19 precautions.

The officer met with the assistant director, who said the woman in question was in her mother’s room and was refusing to leave. She said the woman had gotten loud and angry with the staff, and wanted to know why her mother had moved to a different room. She said other residents were moved out of the area so they weren’t disturbed.

The officer went to the mother’s room and saw the woman and her mother discussing what looked like bills. The woman was upset, but she did comply with the officer’s request to leave the room and go outside with him to discuss the situation.

When they got outside, the offi cer asked her if she was aware of the nursing home lockdown orders that were in effect to prevent the spread of COVID-19. She acknowledged knowing about the restrictions, but said she really needed to talk with her mother about some bills. She said she also got upset when she went to her mother’s room and found out she wasn’t there. When the officer asked her why she didn’t leave when the staff told her to, she said she missed her mother and was having a hard time with everything going on her life.

The officer told her that everyone is adjusting to the COVID situation, but she needs to respect the nursing home’s rules. He told her that she can always speak to her mother over the phone or through her window. She said she understood, but kept questioning why her mother had been moved.

The officer spoke again to the assistant director, who said she had tried addressing the woman’s concerns, but she wouldn’t listen. The officer also told her to make sure all of the facility’s doors are locked. The assistant director said someone must have propped open one of the doors, as some residents go outside to smoke. The officer and assistant manager agreed that a disorderly conduct citation was not warranted due to the circumstances. The officer advised the woman to call the facility’s director with her concerns. She agreed to do so.

_ April 3 - An officer was dispatched to an Abbotsford apartment in reference to a loud music complaint. The tenant invited the officer into her apartment and had him listen to the music coming from above. The officer could clearly hear the music, and noticed that the bass was causing vibrations in the complainant’s apartment. The complainant said this is an ongoing problem, and when she asks the neighbors to turn it down, they only do so slightly and for a short time. She said she spoke to the apartment manager, who advised her to call the police.

The officer went and spoke with the neighbors, but he could barely hear them over the loud music. He told them to turn it down, but one of the tenants tried showing him a rental contract that supposedly allowed them to play music at any time of day. The officer said he didn’t care about the contract, and he just wanted them to use common sense and not disturb their neighbors.

The female tenant questioned the offi cer on what would happen if they had a party there. The officer said police would respond to any complaints they receive. The officer again advised her to be respectful of her neighbors. The female tenant went to the second floor of the apartment, and the officer could hear her stomping around and setting things down loudly. The officer yelled up to her to turn down the music, but she did not, so the male tenant did so.

The officer noted that the male tenant was cooperative throughout the incident, but the female party was not. She had previously been warned about keeping her music down, so the officer issued her a citation. She shrugged her shoulders, and the officer told her she was going to make things worse for herself if she doesn’t keep the music down.

_ April 4 - An officer spoke with an inmate at the Vilas County Jail who was worried about someone stealing the mail at his house in Colby. The inmate said his suspicions were raised after he received a message from an unknown person, warning him to quit trying to contact his own girlfriend. He told the officer that he had been sending his girlfriend letters while he was in jail, and the only way someone else would know was if they stole his mail.

The officer agreed to contact the inmate’s girlfriend, who said she had not received anything from her boyfriend in the past two weeks. She said she is in the process of moving out of her boyfriend’s house in Colby, and her mother is picking up her mail. She said her mother has never liked her boyfriend and doesn’t want him around. She said she would ask her mother about the letters and start picking up her own mail.

_ April 4 - An officer was on patrol in Abbotsford when he noticed a vehicle belonging to a man who had been the subject of a welfare request. His girlfriend told police that he had been experiencing psychosis, and she was worried about him driving around, especially with icy roads.

The man’s vehicle was pulled over shortly after 1:30 a.m., and the officer could smell marijuana as he approached the driver. The driver admitted he had the drug in his vehicle and had smoked some that night. The officer recovered a packed joint and a baggie of marijuana from the vehicle. The driver was taken to the police station for field sobriety tests, which he passed.

The officer contacted a health care center and had the man speak to a crisis worker. They agreed that he did not meet the criteria for emergency detention, so he was brought to his mother’s place in Colby for the night. Besides the marijuana, hashish and hash oil were also confi scated from the vehicle. The driver was referred for drug possession charges.