INCIDENTS
City:
Wednesday, 4:57 p.m., Dairy Queen, 900 block of North Main Street. Caller reported witnessing a Ford F-150 southbound on Main Street drive up over the west curb. Officers responded and located the older male driver in his pickup truck in his driveway and requested medics to check him out.
Wednesday, 4:59 p.m., Dollar General Store, 123 W. Market St. Juvenile detained for shoplifting.
Wednesday, 5:46 p.m., Main Street at Market Street. Juveniles weaving in and out of traffic on bicycles creating a traffic hazard.
Wednesday, 6:05 p.m., Washington Park, 710 S. Mulberry Street. Report of juveniles making threatening comments to other juveniles.
Wednesday, 7:17 p.m., Hi-Lo Drive. Caller reported someone used chalk to draw pictures of penises all over the street. Officer located the pre-teen girl responsible for the artistry. She advised she would wash the chalk drawings off the pavement and not draw depictions of the male member on the street anymore.
Wednesday, 8:04 p.m., South Street at Oak Street. Sixty-year-old man fell off his bicycle and banged his head. Bluffton Fire Department first responders, Wells County EMS and Bluffton police dispatched.
Wednesday, 10:15 p.m., mobile home in the 400 block of Cedar Road, Bluffton Woods mobile home park. Caller reported hearing someone enter and then exit the mobile home. Officers dispatched but whoever it was had left the area.
Wednesday, 10:38 p.m., Bluffton Regional Medical Center, 303 S. Main St. Officers requested to look for a man who left the hospital and was possibly walking home. An officer checked the area and the man’s residence, but did not locate him.
Thursday, 8:13 a.m., 200 block of East Silver Street. Meter reader reported being nearly bitten by an aggressive rottweiler.
Thursday, 8:16 a.m., Bluffton Regional Medical Center emergency room, 303 S. Main St. Report of a man yelling at a woman and throwing things at her outside of the Center. She then fled into the emergency room, the man followed and was told by BRMC staff members to leave. He headed west on Cherry Street to Johnson Street and went north on Johnson. Officers responded. Information taken for a report.
Thursday, 8:21 a.m., 200 block of West Market Street. Caller reported that a vagrant hanging around downtown has been urinating on the side of several buildings. The caller wanted the man warned for criminal trespassing at several locations.
Thursday, 10:25 a.m., Bluffton Police Department, 204 E. Market St. Person came to the lobby of the police station to report theft of a Sony PlayStation video game system and several video games.
County:
Wednesday, 1 p.m., residence on West Market Street in Liberty Center. Caller reported theft of a handgun.
Wednesday, 5:23 p.m., Garhard Street at North Washington Street, Murray. Semi hit a sign and kept going. Indiana Department of Transportation notified to replace the sign.
Thursday, 5:58 a.m., 100E just north of Murray. While monitoring traffic on Ind. 116 in Murray, a sheriff’s deputy noticed a vehicle driving faster than the posted speed limit continue northbound onto 100E. He clocked the Kia Forte at 62 mph-45 zone and pulled it over. The driver, identified as Cenedra Shadawn Baker, 35, Fort Wayne, was arrested for driving while suspended with a prior conviction for the same offense, a Class A misdemeanor. She was released on her own recognizance.
Thursday, 9:37 a.m., Silo Farms, 11080N-Ind. 1. Caller reported he could hear a couple in one of the mobile homes several lots away yelling at each other and items being thrown about. Deputies responded. Situation calmed. Parties separated.
ACCIDENTS
City:
Wednesday, 9:40 p.m., stone parking lot in the 500 block of South Indiana Street. Maciej Zaklikiewicz, 37, rural Hartford City, was driving a 2022 Ford Explorer registered to the Wells County Sheriff’s Office in his capacity as a sheriff’s deputy when he was exiting the parking lot and failed to see a Bluffton Utilities electric pole guy wire and clipped the wire, causing more than $1,000 damage to the vehicle.
County:
Tuesday, 9:12 p.m., 700N east of Ind. 1. Amarea J. Chandler, 16, rural Ossian, swerved the eastbound 2013 Chevrolet Cruz she was driving to avoid a deer in the roadway and drove off the road. The car crashed into some decorative rocks in the front yard of Lee and Danielle Werling, 3635E-700N, then continued up into the Werlings’ front yard. Chandler was not injured. Damage exceeded $10,000.
Wednesday, 9:26 a.m., Ind. 1 at 200S. Roberta J. Riggs, 87, rural Poneto, was eastbound on 200S in a 2001 Chevrolet Impala. She stopped for Ind. 1. Failing to see any approaching traffic, she made a left turn onto Ind. 1 just as Danny L. McMillan, 68, Van Wert, Ohio, was passing by in a 2000 Peterbilt semi towing a box trailer registered to Myers Transport LTD, Scott, Ohio. The rear wheels of the semi sideswiped the car from rear to front causing more than $2,500.
Wednesday, 11:40 a.m., 300W at 900N. William R. Miller, 85, Bluffton, was driving south on 300W. Near 1100N, he turned on his hazard lights because he was slowing down to look for 900N, which was still two miles further south. Finally, as he approached 900N, turned on the left turn signal of his 2004 Ford F-150 pickup truck, apparently not realizing that the hazard lights cover over the turn signal. Jy L. Gehring, 40, Fort Wayne, was driving a large 2000 Grove TM 890 construction crane registered to Doc’s Crane and Rigging, Roanoke. Since the turn signal was superseded by the hazard lights on the pickup truck, he assumed Miller was just slowing down even more as he was heading south on 300W. So, Gehring decided to try and pass the pickup truck on the left — just as Miller attempted his turn. No one was injured but damage exceeded $25,000
Wednesday, 1:10 p.m., Ind. 1 south of 700N. Ridge M. Borne, 21, rural Ossian, was driving a 2012 Ford Fusion south on Ind. 1 approaching a line of traffic slowed or stopped for a construction zone. Borne dropped the cigarette he was holding, reached down to pick it up, and drove into the back of a 2014 Chrysler Town & Country van driven by Donal E. Budlong, 26, Ossian. After impact, the Fusion veered off the right side of the road into the ditch and struck a construction sign. No one was injured. Damage exceeded $5,000. Borne was cited for not having a valid driver’s license in his possession.
Thursday, 3:23 a.m., Ind. 116 at 300N. Cristian A. Martinez Caliz, 28, Huntington, hit one of three deer that ran onto the road with his 2018 Hyndai Elantra. Damage to the car exceeded $1,000.
ARRESTS
Brandon Lee Moffett, 34, Bluffton; sex offender registration violation, a Level 5 felony. Bond set at $10,000.
Serena Rae Dowell, 25, Ossian; probation violation. No bond set.
TICKETS
Stanley M. Smith, 62, Decatur; 65 mph-45 zone, 450E south of 300N.
McKennzie J. Stoppenhagen, 19, rural Decatur; 60 mph-35 zone, U.S. 224 at Countryside Drive, Markle.
Justin R. Baker, 23, rural Ossian; 60 mph-45 zone, 100E at 500N.
