Briefly

Elderly man latest victim of 9/11 scam

An elderly Spokane man was at least the fourth victim in about a month of a scam by people claiming to have received large sums of cash as relatives of victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attack in New York City.

The victim told Spokane police that he was approached by a man on Sept. 14 in the parking lot at Fred Meyer, 525 E. Francis. The man claimed his brother was killed in the 2001 attack and he needed help finding a charity to give money to, police spokesman Dick Cottam said in a press release. The con man said he could not take that much money into his country, South Africa.

As the two men spoke, a second man – apparently part of the scam – approached them, and agreed to help find a charity, Cottam said. That man approached a bank at Division and Cozza Drive and returned some time later claiming to have withdrawn money “to prove he was trustworthy.”

The victim then drove the two men to his own bank, the Washington Trust at 18 E. Baldwin, and withdrew $5,000.

One of the con men asked to count the victim’s money. When the victim later checked what he thought was his money, he found nothing but newspaper cut to the size of currency, Cottam wrote.

The victim looked for the con men in a restaurant where they said they were going for lunch, but they never arrived, Cottam said.

One suspect, about 40, stands about 5-foot-8 with a medium build. The second is about 6 feet tall and in his 30s. Both were black, wore dark suits and carried suitcases, Cottam wrote.

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

Investigators seek information on burglaries

Spokane County sheriff’s investigators want the public’s help solving two burglaries at North Division businesses.

The owner of Wandermere Animal Hospital, 11901 N. Division, reported that her last employee left the business about 5:45 p.m. Friday, sheriff’s spokesman Cpl. Dave Reagan said in a release. About 4 p.m. Sunday, she got a call that a screen was missing from the building’s bathroom window. She checked the business Monday morning and discovered a money bag missing.

Also over the weekend, someone reportedly climbed the fence at Bekkering’s Automotive, 8821 N. Division, and prowled seven vehicles, most of them unlocked. Employees were unsure what had been taken from customers’ cars.

A detective found a U-Haul blanket from an adjoining business at the base of the chain-link fence. Footprints and bicycle prints led away to the southwest, Reagan said.

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

Residents report gunfire in neighborhood

Several residents in the area of 2200 West Pacific Avenue reported hearing gunshots just after midnight Monday, but there were no reports of injuries or property being hit.

Officers said witnesses reported hearing from three to seven shots on West Pacific near Hemlock, police spokesman Dick Cottam said.

One of the residents told police that three passengers in a large truck got out on Hemlock and fired several shots at a red Honda in the area. Officers recovered several shell casings from the street but had no reports or indications that the shots hit anything, Cottam said.

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

Liberty Lake to award sewage-plant contract

Liberty Lake Sewer and Water District will meet today to award a contract for its new sewage treatment plant.

If the district’s attorneys and engineers determine that the lowest bid meets requirements, Williams Bros. Construction of Spokane will get the contract.

The project was sent out for a second round of bidding after the first bids came in over $800,000 more than project engineers had initially estimated.

If Williams Bros. Construction is awarded the project, Sewer Commissioner Frank Boyle said the district will have saved $200,000 by rebidding the contract.

While the difference is a fraction of the cost of building the plant, which came in just under $11 million, the savings is nonetheless significant, Boyle said.

The 7 p.m. meeting will be at . at the Liberty Lake Sewer and Water District Administration Building, 22510 E. Mission.

Man accidentally shot while hunting rodents

An 18-year-old Hayden man was accidentally shot in the leg Sunday by his cousin while the pair hunted squirrels and gophers near a gravel pit off Hayden Creek Road, according to the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Department.

Dr. Arlie Esau of Hayden Lake Family Physicians reported the shooting after Charles J. Farley came to his clinic Monday morning to get the bullet removed from his thigh.

Farley told a Kootenai County Sheriff’s deputy that he and his cousin, who lives in Spokane, were at the gravel pit shooting. Farley said he sat down while his cousin walked toward the woods with .22 rifle and shot at a tree, possibly aiming at a squirrel.

Farley said he felt pain in his right leg and saw a hole where the bullet had entered above the knee. The cousins went to their tent and Farley cleaned the wound with water and bandaged it.

He went to the doctor the next day at the urging of his grandparents, with whom he lives.

Farley’s cousin told the deputy in a telephone conversation that he thought the bullet bounced off a tree and “got him in the leg.”

Esau told the deputy that the bullet was “mushroomed” when he removed it from Farley’s leg, probably indicating that the bullet ricocheted.

The bullet was located just under the skin about 3 inches above Farley’s knee. It hit no bones.

Mayor stable after cancer surgery

Spokane Mayor Jim West underwent surgery again on Tuesday to remove two cancer spots on his liver, his office said.

West’s operation was completed Tuesday afternoon at the University of Washington Medical Center in Seattle and his condition was stable, said Marlene Feist, spokeswoman for the mayor.

“We’re told everything went very well,” Feist said.

Shots fired in Valley apartment building

Two men fired as many as eight shots in an apartment building in Spokane Valley at about 9:15 p.m. Tuesday, the Spokane Valley Police reported.

No one was injured in the building, 12202 E. Maxwell Ave., said police spokesman Dave Reagan.

No further information was available.