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Kalispell casino hit by burglary

| September 2, 2008 1:00 AM

For the second time in a week, Kalispell police are investigating an incident at the Best Bet Casino on East Idaho Street, this time for an alleged burglary and vandalism.

When the casino manager arrived at the Best Bet early Monday morning, she found all of the lights off and all of the gaming machines appeared to be broken, according to police records. At the north end of the casino, someone had cut open the side of the building to gain access.

Police are still investigating.

They also are still searching for an unidentified man who walked into the Best Bet on Thursday afternoon and robbed an employee at knife point.

A woman at a restaurant on East Idaho Street told police a man in a black Harley shirt asked her 4-year-old son if he wanted to see a snake inside his shirt. Restaurant managers asked the man to leave and he did, but he later returned. When the woman's friend saw the mysterious man disappear into a nearby motel room, police checked the room, but the occupants knew nothing about the man or his snake.

Several games and game controls were stolen over the last month from a residence on Meridian Road.

An iPod was stolen from an unlocked car on Harrison Boulevard.

A persistent thief has stolen gas three weeks in a row from a gas station on U.S. 93 South. The station owner supplied police with a description of the vehicle.

A 52-year-old man was found dead at a residence on Third Avenue West in Kalispell. Cause of death is under investigation.

Columbia Falls police arrested a 23-year-old Columbia Falls woman for misdemeanor assault on another woman on Second Avenue West. The woman arrested had an outstanding warrant from the Kalispell Police Department for theft charges.

Police logged 24 calls from 3:30 p.m. Sunday to 3:30 p.m. Monday.

Whitefish police logged 36 calls over the same 24-hour period, but reported a relatively incident-free Labor Day weekend.

A Haywire Gulch resident called the Flathead County Sheriff's Office to report that neighbors had been shooting guns for two days and ricocheted bullets were flying past the resident's property. Horses were spooked and one broke through a fence.

"Unsafe" shooting also was reported on Foothill Road. And in a Columbia Falls neighborhood, teenage boys were partying and shooting guns.

An Evergreen woman said someone has been living in the crawl space of her home, unbeknownst to her. The quiet squatter left belongings behind, but it's unclear how long the crawl space had been used for living quarters. The woman hadn't checked it for three months.

Deputies are investigating a possible sexual assault case on Whitefish Stage Road.

Alarms

Whitefish Fire Department responded to a chimney fire on Woodland Place late Sunday night.

Lakeside Quick Response Unit and the Montana Highway Patrol responded to a motor-vehicle accident with injuries Sunday night at the Somers fishing access.