INCIDENTS
City:
Friday, 4:36 p.m., McDonald’s restaurant, 984 N. Main St. Report of a belligerent customer making threats. Customer left before officers arrived.
Friday, 8:13 p.m., Bennett Street at Silver Street. Report of teenagers fighting. Officers responded. Youth scattered before officers arrived.
Friday, 8:32 p.m., residence in the 400 block of West Wabash Street. Verbal altercation between husband and wife. Officers responded. Male half left. He returned at 9:49 p.m. and police were called to the residence again. Situation calmed. Parties separated.
Saturday, 6:48 a.m., Wells County Courthouse, 102 W. Market St. Burglar alarm. Officers responded. Courthouse was open for early voting and the alarm was triggered accidentally.
Saturday, 7:13 a.m., Walmart Supercenter, 2100 N. Main St. Two women allegedly shoplifted items from the store.
Saturday, 11:48 a.m., Family Centered Services, 1515 N. Sutton Circle. Burglar alarm. Officers responded. No sign of foul play found.
Saturday, 1:47 p.m., person came to the Bluffton Police Department to report the theft of a bicycle.
Saturday, 5:02 p.m., residence in the 400 block of Kathryn Circle, Maplewood Estates mobile home park. Bicycle stolen.
Saturday, 6:19 p.m., residence in the 700 block of McArthur Drive, Bluffton Woods mobile home park. Caller reported a neighbor’s dog bit him on the right hand and attacked his dog.
Saturday, 7:32 p.m., Washington Park, 710 S. Mulberry Street. Razor scooter stolen.
Sunday, 6:18 a.m., residence in the 100 block of North Street. Caller reported a skinny male knocked on her door and wanted to get high with her. Officer responded. The man went home.
Sunday, 10:57 a.m., residence in the 500 block of South Bennett Street. Officers requested to remove an unwanted man from the residence.
Sunday, 8:22 p.m., Dorothy Drive at Clark Avenue, Maple Grove Estates mobile home park. Report of a loud verbal altercation between a man and a woman. Officers responded. Situation calmed. Both warned for disorderly conduct.
Sunday, 8:24 p.m., Main Motel, 1005 S. Main St. Verbal altercation between a male from one room and a female from another room in the motel. Officers responded. Situation calmed.
Monday, 11:23 a.m., Bluffton Regional Medical Center, 303 S. Main St. Unruly patient in the emergency room. Officers dispatched.
County:
Friday, 6:46 p.m., residence on Walnut Street in Liberty Center. Neighbors screaming obscenities at each other. Deputy responded. Situation calmed. Both warned for trespassing on each others’ property.
Saturday, 9:31 a.m., Uniondale Elevator LLC, 6025N-100W, Uniondale. Stray husky-mix dog fell into the grain leg pit. Uniondale firefighters and Ossian-Jefferson Township firefighters worked together to rescue the dog from the pit. It was uninjured. The dog was taken to the Wells County Animal Shelter.
Saturday, 3:56 p.m., residence on 400E south of 100S. Caller reported a vehicle veered off the road, hit and damaged his fence, and then left the scene about an hour earlier.
Saturday, 4:43 p.m., 100E near 300N. Report of five vehicles parked along the Wabash River. Sheriff’s deputy checked it out and discovered all five belonged to members of the Bluffton Kayak Club.
Saturday, 9:46 p.m., Silo Farms mobile home park, 11080N-Ind. 1. Caller reported two men and a woman arguing loudly and one of the mean appeared to be on the ground. They then split up and left. State trooper checked, but whoever had been fighting was gone.
Saturday, 10:16 p.m., Reiffsburg. Caller reported hearing gunshots. Deputy responded. It turned to be a Couple friends shooting at night testing out their night vision and thermal scopes.
Sunday, 9:03 a.m., residence on Countryside Drive in Markle. Gun reported stolen.
Sunday, 10:17 a.m., residence on Ind. 116 just south of Bluffton. Deputies responded to a report of a man at the residence behaving violently and destroying property. Man taken to Parkview Behavioral Health.
Sunday, 3:45 p.m., Wells County Jail, 1615 W. Western Ave. Sheriff’s deputy was flagged down in the employee parking lot by a woman inside a vehicle who told the deputy she was the new county sheriff and that she wanted “Officer Lambert” fired. The deputy explained there was no deputy in the sheriff’s office named that. She insisted there was and that he had been hired just that day. She also accused an auto dealer of making her vehicle so that it would only run on E-85 gasoline. The deputy informed the woman where she could purchase E-85 if she wished and then explained to her that if she wanted to visit the sheriff’s office or the jail, she needed to park her vehicle in the public parking lot. She then left and did not return.
Sunday, 5:07 p.m., Ind. 218 at 500E. Report that a campaign sign had been vandalized. Sheriff’s deputy responded. Turned out the owner of the property had removed the sign.
Monday, 12:27 a.m., Main Street at 250N. Deputy pulled over a First Fleet semi after noticing sparks coming from underneath it. Turned out to be a broken spring holding up the trailer wires, The spring was removed and the truck driver went on his way.
Monday, 8:30 a.m., l680N-100W. Flatbed truck pulled out of a field, clipped an electrical pole and broke the pole causing the wires to drop. The truck then left the scene.
Ossian:
Friday, 4:07 p.m., Ossian woman reported that someone used her identity to rent a U-Haul trailer in Terre Haute.
Friday, 6:20 p.m., Jefferson Street near LaFever Street, Ossian. While patrolling the streets, an Ossian police officer and an officer training with him spotted a car muffler lying on Jefferson Street. When they exited the patrol vehicle to remove the muffler from the street, they spotted four vehicles parked in a nearby stone parking lot. All four had been involved in a chain-reaction type traffic accident that had just occurred and had pulled off the street. The driver of the most damaged car — and the one that apparently initiated the chain reaction, Victor Lee Waters, 55, Bluffton, was charged with possession of marijuana and operating a vehicle while intoxicated. Bond set at $2,500.
Saturday, 4:09 p.m., former Ossian Furniture & Design building, 10018N-Ind. 1. Burglar alarm. Officer and sheriff’s deputy responded. No sign of foul play found.
ACCIDENTS
City:
Thursday, 11:23 a.m., Peyton’s Northern, 1111 S. Adams St. Innocent Niyongabo, 38, Dallas, Texas, was backing a semi registered to Werner Enterprises, Omaha, Neb., into a loading dock when he clipped a the trailer of a semi parked in the adjacent dock. Damage estimated at less than $1,000.
Saturday, 10:29 a.m., Main Street at the main entrance to the Airplane Express convenience store. Jack W. McFarren, 68, Bluffton, pulled out of the parking lot of the convenience store and his 2008 Ford Ranger collided with a southbound 2003 Pontiac Vibe driven by Megan M. Boots, 38, Bluffton. Damage exceeded $2,500. Boots was briefly trapped inside her Vibe and Bluffton Fire Rescue was dispatched to the scene.
Saturday, 12:28 p.m., drive through at Taco Bell, 628 N. Main St. Both Kyra B. Kiel, 18, rural Warren, and George P. Boyd, 52, Bluffton, were in the drive-through line. Kiel’s foot slipped off the brake and her 2010 Ford Fusion inched forward and bumped into the back of Boyd’s 2018 Ford EcoSport. Damage was estimated at less than $1,000.
Monday, 10:37 a.m., 1169 N. Main St. A 2007 Chevrolet Silverado pickup truck driven by Larry W. Rains, 63, Bluffton, backed into a parked 2014 Chevrolet Traverse registered to Jessica N. Beste, Bluffton. Damage estimated at less than $1,000.
County:
Sunday, 7:11 a.m., Ind. 1 at U.S. 224. Nicholas A. Novielli, 32, Fort Wayne, was driving south on Ind. 1 approaching the intersection when he failed to stop in time. His 2008 Dodge Nitro struck a 2014 Audi S4 driven by Eh Maung, 19, Fort Wayne, as Maung was stopped at the red light at the intersection. Damage exceeded $2,500. Maung and his passenger suffered minor injuries and Wells County EMS and Ossian Fire Rescue were dispatched to the scene, however no one was transported to the hospital.
Sunday, 8:20 p.m., Ind. 1 near 350N. Jill A. Phillabaum, 53, Bluffton, hit a deer with her 2012 Lincoln MKZ. Damage to the car was estimated at less than $1,000.
ARRESTS
Brian Randy Vanauken, 40, Fort Wayne; three counts of child molesting, all Level 1 felonies; one count of promotion of sexual trafficking of a younger child, a Level 3 felony; six counts of child solicitation, all Level 4 felonies; and five counts of child solicitation, all Level 5 felonies. No bond set.
Marissa Marie Mader, 22, Berne; probation violation. No bond set.
