Roadway Prank Could Have Been Fatal

Spokane County Sheriff’s detectives are still looking for vandals whose prank in Spangle last week caused a vehicle accident.

A man driving a 1976 Chevy pickup west on the Spangle-Waverly Road struck a chain connected to concrete-filled barrels that apparently were dragged into the middle of the road, according to Detective Mark Stewart.

The truck ran over one and ended up stuck, with its chassis resting on the barrel. The man, who was wearing his seat belt, was not injured, Stewart said, but had to wait by his car in the snow for two hours until someone drove by and helped.

“It could have caused serious injuries, depending on the circumstances,” Stewart said.

Cpl. Dave Reagan added that the accident could have been fatal.

The barrels were connected by a chain and were dragged from Liberty Junior High School, three quarters of a mile down the road, Stewart said. They are normally used to separate part of the school’s parking lot.

Stewart said that sometime over the weekend of Nov. 25 suspects in a pickup truck hooked the cable to the rig and dragged the barrels around the school grounds.

When they were finished tearing up the lawn, the suspects set the barrels up so the chain was stretched across Spangle-Waverly Road, where the truck struck it.

Stewart said the tow vehicle must have been a four-wheel drive vehicle of some kind. The barrels are painted orange, and the vehicle used might have been damaged when one of the barrels struck it.

The barrel would have left orange paint.

Anyone with information on the vandals, or the truck used, is asked to call Crime Check at 456-2233.

Tractor stolen

A construction tractor and the trailer it was on were stolen from a West Plains construction site over the weekend, Stewart said.

The Sheriff’s Office detective is hoping that witnesses might have caught sight of the thief or thieves who drove off with the $16,000 Bobcat the construction company rented to excavate soil. The 18-foot trailer was worth another $5,500.

The site is located west of Spokane in the rural, farming area near Espinola just off of Highway 2 and Wood Road.

Stewart said one man reported he saw a two-tone brown Ford pickup towing the trailer and Bobcat northbound on Wood.

But without another witness, Stewart said his chance of finding the Bobcat and trailer, and arresting the person or people who took them, is “slim to none.”

Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Check at 456-2233.

Heirlooms missing

A month after an elderly woman’s home burned down, thieves have made off with the heirlooms a relative salvaged from the ashes, Cpl. Dave Reagan said.

The home on 1210 S. Grove burned down the first week of November. Afterward, the woman’s son-in-law picked trough the charred rubble and managed to salvage numerous heirlooms, which he boxed and stored on site, Reagan said.

Reagan said he didn’t know what in particular was saved.

When the son-in-law returned Nov. 28, the items were stolen, Reagan said.