Clues sought in unusual crimes
While the summer season always features a fairly predictable array of valuables being pilfered, police say they have also investigated plenty of unusual thefts in the past few months.
Among them was an American flag valued at about $10 stolen from a house on the 16400 block of East Main Avenue after someone apparently tried unsuccessfully to pry open the garage door, said Spokane Valley Police spokesman Sgt. Dave Reagan.
At the 7800 block of East Indiana, a woman reported that someone stole $770 worth of sheets, pillows and comforters from her storage shed.
A farmer on North Doak Road called police after he helped load 35 bales of hay onto a truck only to have the customer drive away without paying the $80 or so he owed, Reagan said.
And, in possibly the most complicated heist of the summer, Pacific Northwest Railroad employees reported that someone stole a tanker-car load of salt water that was parked behind Home Depot at Sprague Avenue and Fancher Road, Reagan said.
Railroad employees told police the salt water, worth about $8,700, is used to make de-icer, and whoever took it would have needed special coupling equipment to drain the railcar.
Just as with more run of the mill crimes, anyone with information on these incidents is encouraged to call the police at 242-TIPS
City council
Conversation with Community
The city of Spokane Valley will hold its quarterly Conversation with the Community from 6 to 7 p.m. Wednesday at Valley Point at Pines Church, 714 S. Pines Road.
The public can talk with the City Council and the heads of city departments in a setting that is more informal than that of weekly council meetings.
On Thursday, another community meeting will provide details on construction at and around the Pines Road-Interstate 90 interchange.
Between May and October next year, crews will reconfigure the westbound on and off ramps to divert traffic onto Indiana Avenue, install a traffic light at a widened Mansfield Avenue road and put in a roundabout at the intersection of Mansfield, Wilbur Road and Montgomery Avenue.
The meeting will take place from 4:30 to 7 p.m. at the CenterPlace community center, 2426 N. Discovery Place, next to the YMCA.