This Week in Blotter
The Sioux City Police Department responded to several odd calls this week, including an uncontrollable (and burning) car, a vicious stray kitten and pumpkins used as weapons of destruction.
It was a victory for beer sliders everywhere.
On Wednesday, the Iowa Court of Appeals became the beer-oriented set’s favorite judicial institution after ruling a Wall Lake bowling ally owner did not knowingly allow a RAGBRAI beer slider to get naked.
It happened during Iowa’s greatest bike tour on July 25, 2004, at Lake Lanes Bowling Alley in Wall Lake, a city about 80 miles east of Sioux City.
Boger contended that he never advertised a naked beer slide.
It’s official: the O’Brien County Sheriff’s Office is in possession of two long-eared media sensations.
This Week in Blotter
According to the Sioux City Police Department’s press logs, officers responded to calls involving the secret service, a deceptively peaceful mariachi band and a sack of dog poop that included a note.
People just won’t stop stealing Budweiser from Kum & Go gas stations. It makes no sense.
According to the Sioux City Police log, two different Kum & Go stores were hit by beer thieves this weekend.
– At 12:38 a.m. Sunday, four men took an 18-pack of Budweiser beer from Kum & Go, 2930 Gordon Dr. One man was wearing a yellow hooded-sweatshirt.
– A second beer theft was reported at 2:32 that morning, when a man stole two cases of beer from the Kum & Go at 1373 Pierce St. (Doesn’t say what kind of beer it was that time.)
At least this weekend’s beer bandits aren’t accused of attacking the store clerks, like three people earlier this year.
On Friday, a 16-year-old girl carried her baby into an Omaha, Neb., hospital and basically abandoned herself and the child under the state’s safe-haven laws.
Media outlets are reporting the girl did so because her mother was abusive, had been stealing her baby’s welfare benefits and kicked the girl out of the house.
Nebraska lawmakers have been up in arms over abuse of the state’s safe-haven laws, which allow anyone to abandon a child under the age of 18 without fear of prosecution, since people started dumping their teenage kids at the state’s hospitals.
Before July, the state didn’t have any safe-haven laws at all. It was about time something was done.
Of course, we all know now that they really should have put an age limit on that. But after hearing this girl’s story, I’m glad she was able to go to a hospital to get help.
About 11:30 p.m. Tuesday, the on-duty members of the Sioux City press corps were all in the same boat. We were crowded underneath the boom of one of the Sioux City Fire Department’s ladder trucks, trying to duck out of the wind and rain.
It was cold. And some of us had already been there almost an hour.
Just as I was about to head out the door — and about 3/4 through the 10 p.m. newscasts — police officers and firefighters were dispatched to a house fire on 14th Street.
Initial reports were children might be trapped in an apartment (which could explain the media turnout), but those proved to be false.
Still, you could tell this wasn’t the average house fire: the place was crawling with police officers.
A Sioux City teen is a lucky kid after crashing his car in a spectacular fashion Tuesday on Hamilton Boulevard in Sioux City.
The teenage boy was driving south on Hamilton when he veered off the road and hit the following items:
– A power pole, breaking it off at the base.
– The street sign for Hamilton Boulevard and 39th Street, which was mangled
– A really big tree, which remains standing.
It was a busy week in Sioux City.
In addition to the stories we wrote about, there were a bunch of smaller (yet no less interesting) police calls that fell through the cracks.
Here are some of my favorites, which are according to the police department’s press log.
– At 1:11 a.m. Monday, two males on bicycles evaded police by riding through yards in the 1700 block of Douglas Street.
SOUTH SIOUX CITY — Has anyone else noticed that the Nebraska State Patrol has virtually camped out this week on Highway 20 near South Sioux City?
Three times this week I’ve noticed a Nebraska State Patrol vehicle parked after dark in the median on Highway 20 between the overpass and the Dakota Avenue exit to South Sioux City and Dakota City.