Felon pulled over for routine traffic stop

At approximately 9:02 a.m. on Oct. 28, an officer conducted a traffic stop on a vehicle without license plates. The officer stopped the vehicle on State Street at the intersection with McKinley Avenue. 

The officer approached the vehicle and made contact with the operator. The officer introduced themself and explained the reason for the stop. The officer asked the driver for her license and proof of insurance for the vehicle. The driver told the officer that she did not have either of those with her. 

The driver was able to produce a photo of a Wisconsin ID. The officer asked the driver why she did not have license plates on the vehicle.

The driver told the officer that she had just purchased the vehicle and had not registered it yet. The officer asked the driver if she had proof of the purchase to which the driver provided documents of the sale.

The officer then wrote down the vehicle’s vehicle identification number (VIN) and returned to their squad. The officer proceeded to run the VIN and found that it returned to the seller of the vehicle and had no wants. 

The officer ran the driver’s information and saw that she came back as suspended. The officer requested a records check through the Communications Center. 

The Communications Center said that the driver had returned as a felon with no wants and was suspended with fourteen priors of operating while suspended (OWS). 

The officer completed a citation for operating while suspended and non-registration of a motor vehicle and explained the citations to the driver before advising her to not drive while suspended.

Fire scare on campus

At approximately 1:34 a.m. on Oct. 30, an officer was dispatched to Marilyn Kaarlgaard Tower to assist in a fire case. 

The Communication Center had told the officer that the hall director had detected the odor of gas within the building. The Communication Center had also sent the Eau Claire Fire Department (ECFD) en route. 

When the officer arrived, they met with the hall director outside of Marilyn Kaarlgard Tower. The officer asked the hall director if he could explain what was going on. 

The hall director said that a Marilyn Kaarlgard Tower resident had reported that they could smell a sulfur type odor on the seventh floor of the building to a Resident Assistant (RA). The Hall Director also stated that an RA reported the same odor the previous morning on the same floor. 

The hall director explained that after the resident called, he walked to the seventh floor of Marilyn Kaarlgard Tower and was able to smell a faint gas odor. 

The hall director said that he could smell a faint gas odor on each of the floors below the 7th floor until the basement level and that he could also smell the odor near the basement central stairwell.

The hall director stated that he had smelled the faint odor near his office the same morning that the RA had reported it occurring on the seventh floor. He said that the gas odor appeared to be occurring in pockets of the building and was typically faint in intensity. 

The ECFD arrived on scene and the Hall Director then relayed the same information to them. The officer, hall director and ECFD then traveled to the seventh floor of Marilyn Kaarlgard Tower and began checking that floor for the source of the gaseous odor. 

The officer was unable to smell any odor of gas on that floor and the ECFD used gas detecting equipment and checked the floor as well, which resulted in nothing being located. 

The group then checked the basement near the main stairwell where the odor had also been smelt. There was once again no gas detection. 

The ECFD asked the hall director if there were any areas of the building that were known to have gas nearby. 

The hall director said that the Karlgaard Towers Hall main lobby and attached basement level both had gas fireplaces. 

The group walked to the main lobby and the firefighters checked both of the fireplaces for the source of the odor, but no gas was detected. 

The ECFD firefighters told the hall director and the officer that they were not smelling nor picking up any gas leak within the building with their equipment. 

The officer asked the firefighters if the residents were safe to remain in the building for the remainder of the night. The firefighters advised that everything appeared to be okay and that residents were safe to stay in the building. The firefighters then cleared the building. 

Lemke can be reached at [email protected].