January 9, 5 p.m.: A motorist on D Street overtook the car ahead of him and began tailgating the auto, which was traveling the speed limit. Perhaps because one of his headlights was out, the aggressive driver did not realize that the guy in front of him was wearing a uniform and driving a marked police vehicle. When the officer contacted the hurried man to discuss the irony of the matter, the driver of the speeding, tailgating, one-eyed car said he did not have his driver’s license with him. This brought to light the fact that his driving privilege in Washington was suspended. A mandatory court appearance is scheduled.
March 4, 1:59 p.m.: Police socially contacted two pedestrians on Pipeline Road and one man fled the area. Officers soon learned that the bashful runner had several warrants, including one for felony escape. Blaine Police, U.S. Border Patrol K9 and U.S. Border Patrol agents assisted with a search, but the felon eluded the searchers. Police continued their lookout and early the next morning found the gentleman. He was exhausted, wet and bedraggled, and accepted transport to the warm jail cell and food which he’d worked all night to avoid.
March 12, 10:47 a.m.: Blaine police received multiple 911 calls about a 5-year-old walking alone on Bayview Avenue wearing only a diaper and rain boots and clutching a pair of men’s pants. The child walked to a neighbor’s home and said he was cold and didn’t know where his mom was. The good neighbors allowed the child to come inside their home and warm up while they called police. Officers arrived and gave the very excited young man a ride to the police department where he was reunited with his mother, who insisted she had been home when her son wandered away. The matter was referred to Child Protective Services for follow-up.
April 9, 7:21 a.m.: A Customs and Border Protection enforcement team working at the Peace Arch port requested that Blaine Police respond when the facility perimeter was compromised and entry to the secure federal facility was made by a single upset suspect who refused to comply with lawful demands that he leave. A Blaine officer responded to protect the port and its personnel. Evaluation determined the several Customs Officers and one Blaine officer could manage the threat level presented without calling for additional resources. A multi-agency unified command was established and inter-agency protocols and directives were reviewed to ensure the planned resolution was in compliance with standing orders. The Department of Homeland Security offered to supply appropriate federal containment hardware to prosecute the mission, while holding in reserve their implements of shock and awe. Having provided the Blaine officer with tools and a fresh threat assessment, the customs team escorted him to the area of the port where the suspect had control. When negotiations between the suspect and officer failed, the officer successfully deployed the containment hardware and took the suspect into custody without injury. Once subdued the suspect refused to admit wrongdoing. In the interest of natural selection he was removed from the federal facility and released to his more sensible and less adventurous muskrat friends.
April 22, 7:20 a.m.: A gas station owner called to report that a customer had stopped to fuel up, and afterwards drove away with the fuel pump nozzle still embedded in his car’s fuel tank spout. The driver may have been tired at the time, as he purchased energy drinks in the store just before causing about $200 damage when he ripped the station’s hose out by its roots. Officers are awaiting a call back from the company that issued the traveler’s credit card to identify the motorist who made the purchases.
May 4, 11:30 a.m.: The Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office requested assistance from Blaine Police with an individual on Pipeline Road discharging a shotgun into trees. Officers and a sheriff’s deputy arrived and contacted the Blaine resident and learned he had been spraying his trees for tent caterpillars. When the man was unable to reach the top branches with his sprayer he decided to eradicate the Lepidoptera with No. 2 buckshot. Although it was a blast, the sheriff’s deputy addressed the man’s unconventional method of pest control.
May 19, 2:35 p.m.: An officer was dispatched to a Blaine business where three small children had inadvertently been locked inside a vehicle after the family pet locked Mom out of her running vehicle. The youngsters were happily secured in their child seats and were not in a position to help out. An officer arrived and unlocked the vehicle. Further K-9 training will be sought in how to push the unlock button.
May 26, 1:08 p.m.: Blaine Police and North Whatcom Fire and Rescue (NWFR) units responded when a vehicle in the southbound lineup caught fire at the Peace Arch port of entry. The arriving units found a passenger car near the building and inspection booths fully engulfed in fast-moving flames. Local and federal officers provided crowd control at the site and briefly closed the nearby northbound freeway lanes as dense smoke was impairing driver visibility, while the crew of NWFR Engine 61 battled and extinguished the blaze. No one was injured in the accidental inferno.
May 27, 11:20 p.m.: A plain clothes officer with another agency was parked in a business parking lot late at night when two people pulled up adjacent to his unmarked government vehicle. The couple parked, turned on their car’s dome light, then prepared and began smoking what appeared to the trained agent to be heroin. The bemused witness called Blaine Police, who quickly arrived to investigate. The occupants, a 25-year-old man and a teenaged girl, were detained and their vehicle was impounded pending a search warrant.
June 4, 10:18 p.m.: Police received complaints of a loud late-night party in the area of 11th and D streets. The arriving officers became instant guests at the birthday bash of a now-70-year-old who was surrounded by a large crowd of well-wishers, many of whom were out dancing in the yard. Dancing in Blaine is a completely legal and encouraged community activity, but the gathering was asked to quiet down a bit so the younger residents in the neighborhood could get to sleep.
June 9, 9 p.m.: A 1989 Toyota was reported stolen from a business in Blaine in February, and on June 9 it was located abandoned near Grandview Road and Koehn Road in the county. The sheriff’s office advised they were unable to recover the vehicle as it was pinned in place by a large fallen tree. Apparently the thief was not inside. The victim owner was notified of the truck’s location, and the watch-for on it was removed from law enforcement databases.
June 10, 9:44 p.m.: Police were dispatched to a report that a suicidal man had cut his throat in a residence. Officers arrived and confirmed the information. They informed the still conscious victim that despite his own inebriated estimate, duct tape and sleep was not going to solve the serious problem at hand. Officers and a medical team from North Whatcom Fire and Rescue tended to the man and his housemates, and the victim was transported to hospital for treatment and counseling.
June 30, 11:54 a.m.: Police were called to the scene of a domestic dispute in progress at a residence on B Street. The arriving officer found an adult brother and sister arguing over whom had consumed whose soft drink. No probable cause was established for a crime, and the primary instigator was cautioned about behaviors that could result in citations or cavities.
Read Part 2 of our 2016 retrospective next week.
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