Detective Returns Four Years Of Research To Owner
Gloria Goltiani began a quest for the past in 1992, after her daughter-in-law asked her about the family’s history.
The question prompted a four-year search by Goltiani, 54, who contacted relatives and searched old newspapers and photographs. Twice her research took her to Minnesota and once to Canada to piece together her family’s history.
Two weeks ago, those four years of research turned into an empty feeling when Goltiani came home from church to discover that someone had broken into her South Hill home and stolen her laptop computer and three computer disks.
The disks contained all of Goltiani’s research notes and her writing concerning her family’s journey from the Philippines to America.
“I had a paper copy of my source notes, but not of a lot of the writing I had done,” she said.
But Goltiani received an unexpected phone call Friday from Spokane police Detective Jan Pogachar.
Pogachar had watched a Thursday night news story on KXLY-TV detailing Goltiani’s loss.
“It got me wondering,” Pogachar said. “I had a guy in jail who had done a rash of burglaries in her area.”
When police arrested burglary suspect Charles Cope, 21, he was carrying a backpack that contained computer disks. Pogachar said she wondered if they might belong to Goltiani.
Pogachar asked Goltiani to describe her disks, which had a phrase written on them. It was a match.
“It was a real neat coincidence,” Pogachar said. “If I hadn’t seen the news story, I might not have put it together.”
Pogachar delivered the disks to Goltiani on Monday morning.
“She looked real happy - relieved, but I still think she’s in a state of shock,” Pogachar said.
Goltiani said, “I’m looking for someone to help me make backups. From now on I will not keep the disks with my computer.”
Goltiani’s laptop computer was not recovered, police said.
Suspect in backpack theft arrested
Police arrested a suspect after a man stole a backpack from an employee of Fitzbillie’s bakery at 1325 W. First.
The victim told police a man had stolen the backpack from a locker at the bakery about 12:30 p.m. The victim spotted the man running from the store and gave police a description.
Within an hour, police responded to a report of a fight at Second and Washington.
Police noted that a belligerent man, Bradley J. Nygard, 41, fit the description of the backpack thief. The bakery employee’s credit cards were found in Nygard’s pocket.
Police arrested Nygard on a charge of second-degree possession of stolen property.
Man leaps from prison van
A Spokane man serving time on work-release jumped from a Geiger Corrections Center van, but his freedom was short-lived.
Police said Shawn D. Storch, 21, jumped from the moving van at Third and Post while returning from work the last Thursday evening.
While en route to the corrections center, Storch apparently heard a police radio broadcast announce that a warrant had been issued for his arrest. The warrant stemmed from the alleged violation of a no-contact order issued for an ex-girlfriend.
At the time of his van ride, Storch was nearing the end of a 20-day sentence for driving without a valid driver’s license.
Police accused Storch of forcing his way into his ex-girlfriend’s residence on Oct 8, pouring beer on her and threatening her with a baseball bat. The woman’s two children witnessed the incident, police said.
Police apprehended Storch at a fast-food restaurant, where he had locked himself in the bathroom after leaping from the van. Storch has been charged with violation of a protection order, a felony.
, DataTimes