Courts & Crime

Airbnb guests find banana thief

A couple staying at an Airbnb rental in Union awoke May 13 to find a thief stealing a banana.

The suspect later told police he was looking for a house his friend had rented, “but was unable to provide any information about the residence or his friend,” Mason County Sheriff’s Deputy S. Fischer wrote in a probable cause document.

Clay McKennell was staying at the rental on state Route 106 when the “unknown subject broke in and took a banana and started going through the bedrooms,” according to the document.

The man allegedly entered Kelton and Cara Slaughter’s room as they were sleeping.

“Once the door opened, Kelton and Cara woke up and confronted the subject. Kelton began confronting the subject and walking down the hallway the subject asked if they were the only two staying here. Kelton advised the subject now there are others staying here as well,” Fischer wrote.

McKennell and Kelton Slaughter got the man out of the house and called police.

“While units were at the residence, Deputy Garant was driving through the Alderbrook Resort & Spa when a subject later identified as Timothy L. Nelson flagged Deputy Garant down. Timothy admitted to Deputy Garant to entering a residence down the road and figured units were looking for him,” the document states.

Nelson, 38, said he was looking for a friend’s house but couldn’t recall his friend’s name or where they were staying, according to the probable cause document.

Deputies found a broken gate handle at the rental.

Nelson was charged with residential burglary and third-degree malicious mischief. He was released on personal recognizance. He has an initial arraignment May 28 in Mason County Superior Court before Judge Monty Cobb.

Drugs, guns, money confiscated in arrest at Shelton McDonald’s

Shelton police arrested a felon who’s been named as a person of interest in numerous gun incidents in Shelton and Mason County after officers observed him and a passenger sleeping and nodding off in a car parked for hours in the Shelton McDonald’s parking lot, according to court documents.

Police arrested Schuyler Conklin, 26, on four counts of unlawful possession of a firearm, possession with intent to deliver and use of drug paraphernalia May 20. Charges are pending.

Shelton Police Sgt. DeRoche and a second officer approached the vehicle in the parking lot because they thought the two occupants “could be overdosing,” according to a probable cause document.

“While approaching the vehicle I observed the female was leaned forward in the passenger seat and I could see the barrel of two firearms sticking out from underneath the passenger side of the center console,” the officer wrote in the document.

Police allegedly saw a revolver and a semi-automatic Smith and Wesson pistol.

The female passenger woke up and “began slapping Schuyler in the face trying to wake him. At the same time it appeared she was reaching down toward the firearms that were visible and tucked underneath the center console,” according to the probable cause document.

Officers say they arrested the two at gunpoint and handcuffed them.

“While the doors were open, from plain view, I observed there to be burnt tin foil on the passenger side vehicle as well as a small ziplock baggie of crystal-like substance in the driver side door panel,” the officer wrote.

Police then obtained a search warrant from Judge Daniel Goodell. Police confiscated a black Taurus .38 Special revolver, a Smith and Wesson .40 caliber pistol, a Ruger 7mm rifle, a Kalashnikov 12-gauge shotgun, ammunition, drug paraphernalia, oxycodone, methadone, methamphetamine, tar heroin and $1,285 cash, according to the probable cause document.

Conklin’s arraignment was May 28 in Mason County Superior Court before Judge Monty Cobb.

Brewer Park assault

Shelton police arrested a man for pointing a gun at another man in Brewer Park on May 14.

An employee of Community Lifeline called 911 to report the incident.

Police arrived and found the victim, Jordon Hurst, “uncooperative, stating he did not want to talk,” although he later gave a statement, according to the probable cause document.

“I spoke with reporting party Kristen Limburg. Kristen stated she was making her rounds and checking on people on the property when she heard yelling coming from the area of the park. Limburg approached the park seeing a male she knows as ‘Mike’ pointing a silver pistol at Jordan telling him something to the effect of, ‘Give me my [expletive] money.’ Limburg approached Mike telling him to leave and that she was calling police,” the document states.

Limburg identified a booking photograph of Michael Best, 51, who was arrested by police May 17 for first-degree assault and first-degree robbery.

Charges have yet to be filed.

Best has an initial arraignment June 3 in Mason County Superior Court before Judge Monty Cobb.