Help sought with poaching cases
A wave of poaching cases is keeping state wildlife agents busy around Spokane County.
Washington Fish and Wildlife Officer Lenny Hahn said tips from the public, such as descriptions and license plate numbers of suspicious vehicles, are key to solving many of these cases.
Agents are seeking additional witness information in three recent incidents in particular, he said, even though evidence has been gathered:
• A small whitetail buck was poached the night of Nov. 17 and left near the 13000 block of Scribner Road near Marshall. An elk was poached in the same area two years ago.
• A deer was poached south of Cheney on Belsby Road near Long Road during the night of Nov. 14, a period closed to deer hunting.
•A young cow moose was shot and left on Horseshoe Lake Road just south of the Pend Oreille County lake Oct. 24.
Anyone with information about these or other wildlife crimes is asked to call the department’s regional office in Spokane Valley at (509) 892-1001.
Informants can remain anonymous and cash rewards or bonus points (for hunters in permit drawings) are available if enough information is given to lead to an arrest, Hahn said.
Spokane
‘Spelling Bee’ shows canceled
The Spokane visit of the touring Broadway musical “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” has been canceled because of routing problems caused by California wildfires.
The show had been booked at the INB Performing Arts Center on Nov. 29-30. But because the show was forced to reschedule shows in California, the tour can no longer make it to Spokane, according to a WestCoast Entertainment spokesman.
All tickets will be refunded. Best of Broadway subscribers or anyone who purchased on the Internet will be automatically refunded. Those who purchased tickets at a TicketsWest outlet must return their tickets within 30 days, either in person at the Spokane Arena box office, 720 W. Mallon Ave., or by mail to TicketsWest, 720 W. Mallon Ave., Spokane, WA 99201.
There is a chance that the show will be rebooked into Spokane in 2009, but details were still being worked out.
Robber, 67, waits for police arrest
A 67-year-old man robbed a downtown gas station, police said, then waited for Spokane officers to arrest him.
At 6:24 a.m., John Paul Adams walked into the Shell station at Third Avenue and Maple Street with a loaded .22-caliber rifle, laid it on the counter and said, “Give me what you got,” said Spokane police Officer Tim Moses.
When the clerk opened the till, the man grabbed several hundred dollars and then told the clerk to call the cops, Moses said. Adams went outside, unloaded his gun, leaned it against a phone booth and “then stood there and waited for us.”
Adams was booked into Spokane County Jail on one count of first-degree robbery, Moses said.
Adams wouldn’t tell police what his motivation was, Moses said. Adams was not homeless. Police impounded the truck he was driving.
Coeur d’Alene
Body of man found in dry creek bed
A 57-year-old Coeur d’Alene man was found dead Friday afternoon in a dry creek bed on the north side of Best Mountain near the end of Wyatt Road off Nettleton Gulch Road, authorities said.
Emergency crews were called to the scene at 12:50 p.m. and determined that Phillip R. Cavinder may have died from exposure. The initial investigation by Kootenai County sheriff’s deputies led them to believe that no criminal activity was involved.
The Sheriff’s Office was expected to follow up with additional investigation.