The San Juan County Sheriff’s Department reported responding to these calls:
Aug. 19: A two-ton wrecking ball vanished from an Orcas Island quarry in an apparent case that occurred sometime in the past 12 months. The owner of the 4,000-pound wrecking ball, crafted out of a 34 X 36-inch section of a ship’s propeller shaft, believes a spike in the price of scrap-metal likely prompted its theft. A pair of 4-foot sections of control cables and four screw shackles vanished as well.
Aug. 22: A Lopez Island woman was ticketed for creating a public nuisance after her puppy was caught chasing chickens in a field near her home in the 300 block of Red Tail Lane. The 23-year-old’s 11-month-old Labrador/Springer Spaniel mix reportedly was corralled before any of the chickens were harmed.
An estimated $400 in security equipment vanished from the Deer Harbor Resort following an apparent after-hours break-in and theft. Someone reportedly broke into resort’s office through a south-facing window and also into the dock-side store through a window on the east side of that building.
Aug. 23: A Seattle man who was ticketed for failing to register his sailboat may face additional penalties for trying to use his dinghy tags as a substitute. The 63-year-old, who reportedly keeps his 37-foot sailboat on Shaw Island, was ticketed and warned about the likelihood of subsequent sanctions and fines following a mid-afternoon inspection by U.S. Customs at the Port of Friday Harbor.
Three men complied with demands by a deputy to remove a homemade wooden ramp following complaints about their use of a public dock as a location to film themselves skateboarding and launching into the water at Orcas Village.
Aug. 28: Three windows on a front-end loader were busted out in an apparent case of vandalism at a Lopez Island company’s gravel pit on Channel Road. Damage to the company’s heavy machinery is estimated at $500.
Aug. 30: A Seattle man believes someone swiped $950 worth of fishing and boating gear out of a boat he keeps on his waterfront lot on Lopez Island. The missing items include four crab pots, a flare kit, an electric shrimp-pot puller and a bucket of bait and supplies. The missing items were reportedly last seen in mid-February.
Erratic driving prompted the arrest of a San Juan Island man for DUI following an early-evening traffic stop near the intersection of Gibbs Lane and Tarte Road. The 30-year-old, who reportedly came to a stop in the middle of the roadway and tried to signal to the deputy trailing behind him to pass him by, was taken into custody shortly before 7 p.m.
Sept. 1: A 15-year-old Orcas Island girl was arrested for hit-and-run and her 17-year-old male passenger was charged with being an accomplice following an apparent early-evening collision with a parked car near the intersection of Judd Cove and Orcas roads. The two reportedly fled the scene in a 1988 Jeep Cherokee in the aftermath of the crash, which occurred at about 7 p.m., and were tracked down, taken into custody and later released to their parents.
Two Orcas Island businesses were broken into and one is out $3,500 in cash following an apparent pair of after-hours burglaries in the heart of Eastsound. A total of $3,576 disappeared from the cash register and an ATM-type machine at Sunflower Cafe, located in the 20 block of North Beach Road, while two security cameras were disabled, one of which vanished, following a break-in at Vern’s Bayside Restaurant and Lounge directly across the street.
