Briefly

Car hits house; driver jailed

A 17-year-old driver was booked into Juvenile Detention, and his passenger was hospitalized, after crashing into a home at the intersection of Hatch Road and Thurston at about 3 a.m. Saturday, police said.

The impact of the crash forced the front third of the 1994 GMC pickup completely into the house, with the front wheels hanging into the basement, according to a Spokane Police Department news release.

The driver was not injured. His passenger, also 17, was taken to a local hospital, where he required surgery. He is now in satisfactory condition, police said. No one in the home was injured.

The homeowner said she was awakened by what sounded like an explosion early Saturday morning, and she found golf-ball-size pieces of concrete in her bedroom and on her bed. She found the driver walking in her front yard, and the passenger trapped in the truck.

The driver told officers he’d been drinking and smoking marijuana earlier that night, and was driving the truck at a high speed “to see how fast the car could go,” police said. The truck was traveling west on Thurston in fog. Thurston ends at Hatch, and the house sits directly at the end of Thurston.

Driver arrested after car crash

A suspected drunken driver plowed into three cars waiting for a stoplight, sending two women to the hospital Friday night, the Washington State Patrol said.

According to the WSP, the three cars were stopped at a light at Trent and Willow when Mark Harold Hug, 45, hit one car, touching off a chain of rear-end collisions.

Hug, who was driving west on Trent, hit a Mazda Protégé driven by Vicki Jo Martin, whose car then hit a Chevrolet Cavalier driven by Jennifer Christene Dowd, 36. Dowd’s car struck a Plymouth Voyager driver by Dawn Marie Vaughan, 32, a Medical Lake resident.

Dowd and Martin were taken by ambulance to Sacred Heart Medical Center, where they were both treated and released. The WSP arrested Hug on suspicion of driving under the influence and vehicular assault. A decision on charges is pending while officers investigate.

Reward offered in car theft case

Secret Witness is offering a cash reward for information that leads to the arrest of a man wanted for the theft of a $70,000 Range Rover more than a year ago.

Cameron Logan Gray, 29, is wanted for the October 2003 theft of the Land Rover-made sport utility vehicle from a dealership, Jaguar Land Rover, on West Third Avenue. Since it disappeared, the Range Rover was parked in a commercial storage facility near 57th Avenue and Regal, where police found it Tuesday.

Since then, officers have been looking for Gray, according to a Spokane Police Department news release.

Detectives believe Gray has been periodically driving the car and parking it in the storage unit, and they have probable cause to arrest him for the theft, police said.

Gray is 6-foot-3, 160 pounds, with blond hair and blue eyes. Anyone with information about his whereabouts is asked to call Secret Witness at 327-5111. Callers are asked to use a code name or number, and do not have to give their own name to be eligible for the reward.

Body found in Pend Oreille River

A body was found floating in the Pend Oreille River Saturday morning near Dover, Idaho. A hunter made the discovery near an old lumber mill shortly before 9 a.m., according to a brief statement released by the Bonner County Sheriff’s Office.

The body was pulled from the water and taken by a sheriff’s department marine patrol boat to Hope, Idaho, where it was turned over to the coroner for further investigation and an autopsy. The identity of the victim and cause of death is not yet known, according to the statement. The sheriff’s office refused to comment further on the discovery.

Crews fight blaze in apartment

Spokane firefighters extinguished a fire Saturday morning at a downtown apartment building, Battalion Chief Dan Brown said.

Crews were called to the New Madison Apartments, 1029 W. First Ave., about 10:50 a.m. Upon arrival, firefighters saw smoke coming from a fifth-floor window.

The building was evacuated and firefighters attacked the blaze, which was in a fifth-floor apartment. It took about 10 minutes to extinguish the fire, Brown said. The cause of the blaze was determined to be an ashtray that had overturned, Brown said.

Residents were allowed back into the building about 11:30 a.m., Brown said.