Lottery scratch ticket proves unlucky
A lottery ticket was a real loser for a man who placed the ticket on the roof of a stolen car to scratch it off.
Spokane Valley Police Officer Aaron Myhre spotted the suspicious-looking man scratching off the ticket and called in the car’s license plate.
He discovered that the Toyota Tercel had been stolen from a downtown parking lot last week. The officer ran a check on the driver, Dustin Shane Leonard of 2518 N. Nevada St., and found that he was wanted on a felony warrant for possession of controlled substances.
A new warrant for second-degree possession of stolen property was issued
Instead of winning cash, the suspect won a free trip to jail. But his luck didn’t end there.
The car was returned to its owner, who called a few hours later to report that the suspect left property in the car. That property included a small lockbox.
Myhre recalled the suspect had a small key on him when he was arrested. He retrieved the key — which opened the box — and found syringes and several baggies of methamphetamine.
Police are now investigating Leonard for drug possession.
Dog thief arrested
A dognapper was caught in possession of a stolen pug Monday.
The dog apparently got out of its fenced yard and found its way into the hands of an unidentified man.
A neighbor saw a man in a green car grab the pug, which likely escaped from inside a fenced yard, and intervened, saying she knew the dog’s owner and would return the pet. However, the suspect fled with the pooch.
The neighbor remembered the license plate number and passed it along to the owner, who drove around looking for the pet. He found a car with a matching license plate number, knocked on the proper apartment door and asked Abdulia M. Beniquez to return his dog.
Beniquez denied having the pug, and the dog’s owner notified police.
Deputy Steve Martone of the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office arrived and found Beniquez on her balcony, dog in hand.
Beniquez told the officer that a male friend had stolen the pug to give to her 4-year-old daughter.
Beniquez was arrested, and the male suspect was identified for future charges.
Dog and owner were reunited.
Valley business burglarized
Two adjoining Valley businesses suffered break-ins last weekend.
A burglar broke into Valley Vac and Sew, 11307 E. Sprague Ave., and then punched through an adjoining wall to enter Just Hair and Nails, a beauty salon.
The thief stole small amounts of cash from two workstations at the salon. Nothing was reported missing from the vacuum store.
Methadone bust in the Valley
Spokane Valley Police Officer Scott Streltzoff arrested a woman who allegedly had 38 methadone pills and 30 tabs of blotter LSD, among other miscellaneous paraphernalia.
Jeanette Elaine Britton, 4824 E. Sprague Ave., was driving a Honda with defective lighting near the 4800 block of East Sprague when the officer pulled her over, police said.
When the officer looked in 37-year-old Britton’s car he noticed that she was holding several wads of cash, in addition to her cell phone.
After the officer determined that she was driving with a suspended license, he got permission to search her car and found an assortment of drugs and $180 in cash.
Methadone is used to treat heroin and morphine addictions and her possession of the drug was determined to be unlawful.
Litter leads to arrest
A suspected car thief threw up a red flag for police when he tossed a beer bottle out the window as he was driving around near Sprague and Pines.
A citizen who saw the bottle get tossed called Spokane Valley Police and gave the license number of a blue Toyota Corolla, saying the driver was possibly drunk.
Police ran a records’ search and found that the car had been reported stolen.
Officer Steven Paynter and Cpl. Kirk Keyser checked nearby parking lots and arrested 21-year-old Isaiah A. McGanty, 206 S. Burns Road, on charges of possession of stolen property.