Customer was eco-friendly, not criminal

Kalispell Police responded after a grocery store worker called for an officer because a woman had allegedly been walking through the store for more than an hour, sipping from a beverage she had not yet purchased and putting shampoo, conditioner and bandages in a cloth bag. The officer found that the woman was not trying to steal items, but was using Earth-friendly reusable shopping bags and had a leisurely purchasing pace. She planned to pay for the beverage at the checkout stand. 

An officer logged information about a woman getting unwanted phone calls from Four Mile Drive, where a man had allegedly kicked over her tools, balled his fists, and punched the driver’s side mirror of her vehicle two nights before. The woman had allegedly continued to receive harassing phone calls from the man, despite blocking his number. She did not want an officer to respond, but wanted the harassment documented. 

A woman was counseled on how she should proceed after she called to report that she had left the scene of an accident on West Idaho Street. 

An officer discovered what he thought was a bag of meth and marked it for destruction after a casino worker reported that a female patron had dropped some drugs on her way out of the establishment.

A man told a deputy with the Flathead County Sheriff’s Office that he had left his car at a turnout in Kila because he couldn’t get it all the way to his house on Friday, but when he came back for the vehicle, all the gas had been siphoned out of the tank, the driver’s side window had been pried open, and some tools and other items were gone. The man found some of his tools in a snow bank. 

A worker at a customer service desk on U.S. 2 reported that someone had cashed a fraudulent check for $451 a few weeks earlier. The bank had returned the check. 

A caller requested that a deputy do a welfare check at a Columbia Falls residence because a 10-year-old girl was allegedly having an inappropriate online relationship with an adult male. The caller said the pair were watching pornographic movies online together. The deputy was dispatched. 

A man on Berne Road in Columbia Falls asked for help after he got around 20 harassing text messages in one day from an electronic online application, telling him that his marriage was going to fail. The man said that he had gotten similar texts before and blocked the numbers involved, but that the unwanted contact had resumed. The man was told that he should call back if he could figure out who the person was on the other end of the line. 

A person was advised that deputies would need some sort of proof of ownership to properly proceed after a person reported that he or she had let someone borrow a laptop. The borrower allegedly pawned the computer. 

A person asked for help after someone cashed a stolen check for $850 in Evergreen. Another stolen check was turned down by a cashier. 

A woman was told to call back if she saw the suspects again after she called from Mountain Meadow Road near Kalispell and reported that a bullet had zinged past her as people performed target practice at the end of the road. The woman said she had been out walking with her baby. 

A man in Arizona called dispatchers back to say that an officer did not need to respond after he initially called for help for a 75-year-old woman he had met a few days earlier on Match.com. The pair had been chatting via telephone for a few days, but the woman had not responded. The man was worried she might have fallen. The woman called the man back before a deputy was dispatched. 

A woman called from Columbia Falls to report that her expensive down coat had been stolen. The woman allegedly found her coat was with a man in Kalispell and she wanted it returned. The woman was unwilling to press charges and told dispatchers that she would try to get the coat back herself. 

Whitefish Police responded to East Third Street, where a business person reported that vandals had climbed on the top of a building and caused substantial damage through graffiti.