Five-hundred pound totem pole goes missing
Flathead Crimestoppers is looking for help in solving the theft of a rather large family heirloom.
An Alaskan totem pole standing 8 feet tall and 2 1/2 feet wide, and weighing more than 500 pounds was discovered missing last week from a storage container at the Merganthaler Transfer Company on U.S. 93 South, where it had been stored since April 2012.
The totem pole was a personal, commissioned item that has been passed down in the family. The sentimental value of the totem pole cannot be measured, but the retail value is more than $10,000.
Anyone with information is asked to contact Flathead Crimestoppers at 752-8477. Tipsters can remain anonymous and could qualify for a cash reward.
A concerned mother watching her children play outside of her Maple Drive home contacted the Flathead County Sheriff’s Office to report a man laying down in the bushes, smoking a cigarette. The man was advised of his pair of warrants out of Missoula and the Kalispell district of the Montana Highway Patrol and sent on his way, after the deputy helped him find his bicycle.
An unsuspecting pedestrian had his ire, and welts, raised when several people drove past him and his friends and shot them with frozen paintballs along Stoner Loop in Lakeside.
A thieving tanner was caught on video grabbing a $100 bottle of lotion at a U.S. 2 East business, putting it in her purse, and leaving. An agreement was made for the woman to come back and pay for the stolen item.
An elderly woman called for help with a situation she is having with several baby skunks.
A Berne Road man in Columbia Falls called for help after a bull wandered into his yard. He was afraid the animal was going to head for the highway.
A new hire at a Shady Glen Drive business took a blank check he received from the business, wrote it to himself for $200 and cashed it at a bar on Montana 35.
A startled skateboarder contacted the Kalispell Police Department after a teen boy with a “Justin Bieber-style” haircut — with highlights — driving a red Volvo on Eighth Avenue West swerved at him intentionally, then pointed a handgun at him. Officers later found the vehicle and took at least one person into custody for questioning.
Officers arrested a man suspected of being involved in a domestic disturbance after he was seen hiding, lying on a porch next door.
A pushy panhandler was reported standing in the middle of the turn lane of Hutton Ranch Road waving a sign.
A befuddled bathroom-user needed a little law enforcement help after accidentally locking himself in a women’s public bathroom on Woodland Avenue. He had been on the women’s side due to the men’s room being in use.
A deranged dog-hater on West Seventh Street was reported to the Whitefish Police Department after shooting a BB gun at his neighbor’s dogs, and screaming at her that if she didn’t do something about the dogs, he would. The woman said she had never seen the man before.
A group of transients living under a bridge on the city’s south side were moved along after being reported by railroad law enforcement.