Truck delivers mulch ahead of schedule

A motorist called the Flathead County Sheriff’s Office to report a truck driver who had spilled tons of “mulch chips” all over the highway between Columbia Falls and Whitefish. Instead of appreciating the free lawn-care products, the driver wanted to “drive safely,” and “not slide on debris while traveling at high speeds.”

A resident of Third Avenue East called police after seeing several squatters in a white van getting out and rummaging through an abandoned house. Officers arrived and told them to stay off the property, reminding one of the people of his prior arrests.

Three children on bikes appeared to be trying to break down the door at an address on Cedar Drive. An officer found the boys, aged 8 to 13, and called their mother. Apparently the house was owned by a relative. The kids and the mom cleaned the dirty footprints off the front door, but they did have permission to play in the house.

A girl called police from Evergreen complaining about a domestic disturbance. According to the caller, her sister couldn’t find an outfit to go out and began punching the walls and screaming. When officers called the house, they heard there was no big problem, just a girl who didn’t want to listen to grandma.

A man said his ex-girlfriend put a hole in his apartment wall while the two were having an argument. The two were breaking up and he asked the 17-year old to move out. She didn’t want to move back in with her parents. The man said the damage was accidental and he will fix it, but he wanted to keep police aware in case she came back in a rage.

A person came into the Columbia Falls Police Department with a 7-year-old girl with a bloody nose. The reporting party said the girl’s mother had “hit her too hard this time.” However when officers investigated, both mother and daughter agreed she gets nosebleeds often, and physical violence was not a factor.

A Fir Avenue resident called the Whitefish Police Department to report a black bear on his property. It had run through his yard on the way to the train tracks, perhaps to hitch a ride to a less smoky forest.

A couple of trucks full of opportunistic loggers were reportedly cutting trees on Reservoir Road, violating Stage 2 restrictions.

At a construction site on Aspen Grove Street a man had climbed to the top floor and was screaming about not having money while shooting nails into the walls of the building. A man on the floor below was trying to talk him down. After an officer spoke with several neighbors, they all said there was no problem, proving that a “problem” means different things to different people.

A Colorado Avenue resident called police after a neighbor came to his door accusing him of hitting her car. When he came out to look, the neighbor’s son came out with a gun. An officer talked to the son and was told “the firearm was not brandished in this case, and was only brought out because the son was worried the mother was gone for too long.”

The Kalispell Police Department took a call from a woman who claimed her boyfriend had struck her in the face while the two were driving to a park. She was calling from a bar phone with a bruised lip and wanted to press assault charges. She was given advice about how to handle the situation.

A man was near the Conrad Mansion when several men came over and started pushing him around, stating he was on private property. They followed him to the police station and confronted him when he came outside, making them candidates for the dumbest criminals in the Flathead.

A teenage driver called police when a car began following him closely around Kalispell. The car eventually broke off its low-speed pursuit around a chain pizza restaurant, deciding on a slice rather than a felony.