Feb. 4: An assortment of music equipment valued at $35,000 disappeared from an Orcas Island in an apparent burglary and theft. Someone reportedly broke in through a sliding glass door of the home while the homeowner was away, ransacked the back room where the equipment, unidentified in the incident report, was stored, and made off with the stockpile.
Feb. 12: A towing mishap prompted a trio of traffic tickets for an Orcas Island man after the trailer he was towing became detached from his truck, veered off the roadway and slammed into a tree in the 500 block of Orcas Road. The 24-year-old, ticketed for failure to secure a load, expired tags and for driving without insurance, reportedly watched helplessly as the trailer, hauling a boat at the time, drifted by his truck as he slowed and ran off the road on its own.
Feb. 17: A late-night altercation at a Deer Harbor home prompted the arrest of an Orcas Island man for felony assault. The 35-year-old, who faces charges of second-degree assault and unlawful imprisonment, allegedly choked his live-in girlfriend and repeatedly threw her to the ground after an argument erupted into a struggle. He claims to have been defending himself after the woman slugged him several times in the face.
Feb. 18: A familiar face and failure to appear in court on a DUI-related charge prompted a mid-afternoon arrest of an Orcas Island man in Eastsound. The 44-year-old was reportedly walking along A Street when he was spied by a deputy, and then taken into custody at about 3:30 p.m.
Feb. 19: Someone discarded three large garbage bags filled with deer carcass remains on a heavily wooded Lopez Island property in an apparent case of trespassing and illegal dumping. It’s the most recent transgression involving trash on that property, located near Aleck Bay, which reportedly has been targeted on at least four other occasions.
March 2: A Lopez Island man was issued a warning letter after two of his dogs were spied running loose in the School House Road neighborhood twice in two days. A neighbor of the 36-year-old reportedly saw a mid-size dog and a standard-size poodle belonging to the man chasing a horse on her property after witnessing the two roaming her yard the day before. She suspects the two wayward canines may be responsible for the mauling and death of a turkey she was raising.
• Someone spray-painted graffiti on three sides of the public restroom in the Village Green in Eastsound in an apparent case of vandalism. The building reportedly was tagged by large letters spelling out the phrases “CDark” and “DC”; the incident remains under investigation.
