Deputies must cope with strange encounters

A bizarre series of cases has ensured that Spokane County sheriff’s deputies have no need to check lunar tables to know when it’s a full moon out there.

A dead coyote in a mailbox, a bowel-relieving burglar and a naked man soliciting roadside sex have reinforced the belief that weird things happen during a full moon, sheriff’s spokesman Cpl. Dave Reagan said.

“It may be an urban legend. But it may not be an urban legend because we tend to see an increase in not just weirder calls, but domestic disputes and things of those nature seem to increase in periods of full moon,” he said.

The reports started last week when a woman who lives in the 10200 block of Hangman Valley Road reported that she has had continual problems with mailbox damage.

On Tuesday of last week, the woman checked her mail and found a dead coyote in the box, Reagan said.

Then at 9 a.m. Monday, a woman was driving on 29th Avenue east of Assembly Road when she saw a parked Ford Explorer with a large cardboard sign that read “Sex Wanted,” Reagan said. She saw a naked man walk around the vehicle.

The woman called 911 and Deputies Tom Edelbrock and Jack Rosenthal responded. The naked man apparently saw the patrol cars coming and jumped into the Explorer to drive away. The deputies made a traffic stop and identified the driver as 32-year-old Scott Keith Gallagher, 3919 W. Longfellow Ave.

Gallagher was still naked and the deputies found a cardboard box from a large appliance with “Sex Wanted” written on it. “He was looking for a date,” Reagan said of Gallagher’s comments to the deputies.

The deputies found various body oils and a stack of adult magazines inside the SUV. Deputies arrested Gallagher and cited him for indecent exposure.

Later Monday, a homeowner in the 3500 block of Lynden Road called the Sheriff’s Office and reported that a burglar had picked the lock on his garage door and stolen hand tools and golf clubs.

However, the burglar also left something behind: a pile of feces in the shape of male genitalia, Reagan said.

“Whether it was contrived or a natural phenomenon, I can’t say,” Reagan said, regarding the shape of the feces. “But to the victim it appeared that it was deliberate.”