Law roundup: Know when to hold'em, fold'em, walk away

The disappearance of a Kalispell man after an argument over money left his wife worried.

She told the Kalispell Police Department that the disagreement occurred about 7:30 a.m. the day before. He left in her truck and she hadn’t seen him since. She was afraid he might get into even more trouble.

Officers agreed to treat him as a missing person, but his status as missing didn’t last long. His better half called back several hours later, letting them know he had turned up in a parking lot. He was there because he gambled all of their money away, she said.

One man apparently made the mistake of loaning out his newly-purchased Ford F-150. He told police he let a friend from prerelease borrow the ride, but he never returned the pickup. He said he bought it just two days prior, but lacked any official documentation for the vehicle.

A janitor asked for help when he came across two men drinking in the rear of his building. Officers moved the two men along.

A teenage dog-walker headed by a home saw a man grab a small child, head inside and start to slap them. When officers arrived to investigate they were invited into the house by the parents of three children. All appeared happy and in good health. The father told officers he had lightly spanked his daughters for misbehaving.

A building supervisor found a person sleeping in an otherwise empty room. Responding officers found a 54-year-old man suffering from stomach pain. They asked for medical assistance and removed the man from the property.

Police officers gave a woman an escort to the emergency room after she called for help with her daughter. The teenager hadn’t eaten for two weeks and had been vomiting, she told dispatchers. The daughter had heretofore refused to see a doctor and the mother was looking for advice.

A caller alerted police to a van-turned-camper with a built-in wood stove parked in the same spot for a few days. The caller hoped officers would check in on the individual, saying they were concerned about people camping alongside local roads.

When officers arrived, they met with the owner of the camper. He said he had permission to be on the property, telling officers that he worked there and wanted to be left alone.

Police unsuccessfully went on the lookout for two dogs running loose near First Street. A caller notified the authorities out of concern the pair would get hit by a vehicle. Officers were unable to locate the pair.

A worried parent asked officers to stay on the lookout for their 15-year-old daughter, who went for a walk about 40 minutes earlier and never returned.

A man alerted authorities that his girlfriend had been drinking and was trying to leave in a car. Midway through the phone call, though, the woman returned and began hollering at him. The conversation descended into yelling as they began accusing each other of drinking and driving. The woman demanded authorities take her to jail.

Arriving officers separate the pair.

Someone spotted a man talking to himself in an alleyway. He was near a lime green motorcycle, which was parked on the sidewalk. The caller asked that officers send the man on his way.

A homeowner reported a drive-by paintballing incident at their neighbor’s house. The resident offered investigators video footage of a car pull up and recalled hearing the “pop pop pop” of a paintball gun.

Someone called to let authorities know that several people at their location were being loud. They asked to remain anonymous.