Deputy’s report: Pet raccoon bite sends man to hospital

The following are excerpts from just some of the reports recently generated by the Texas County Sheriff’s Department:

• On July 22, a deputy investigated a report of a stolen piece of yard art at a Mallard Road residence at Licking.

A 44-year-old woman there told the officer a red metal bird valued at $100 had been swiped. A 39-year-old Licking man is a suspect.

• A deputy was dispatched to Texas County Memorial Hospital on July 18 regarding a report of a raccoon bite.

The officer made contact with a 30-year-old Bucyrus man there who said he had taken in a wild raccoon as a pet a few weeks earlier, and that the animal was dead.

• A deputy was dispatched July 18 after a 38-year-old woman reported shots fired toward her Greenwood Road residence at Cabool.

The officer made contact with a 54-year-old neighbor man who said he and some family members were shooting guns on their property. The officer determined the shots were not fired in the direction of the woman’s house.

The deputy spoke with the woman, and she said she had heard bullets whizzing over her head. The officer told her the neighbors had been shooting in a direction away from her house, and she became angry and said law enforcement never does anything when she has bullets whizzing over her head and that she needed to leave “this trash area.”

• A deputy responded June 17 to a report of an abandoned Chrysler PT Cruiser on U.S. 63 north of Houston.

A computer check revealed that the vehicle’s registration checked back as a 2008 Ford owned by a St. Robert man, and that the vehicle identification number checked back as a 2001 Chrysler owned by a Waynesville man.

The vehicle was towed away.

• Daniel Richardson, 59, of 118 Sackett Road in Licking, was arrested July 14 for having an active Texas County warrant for felony charges of forgery and tampering with a motor vehicle.

A deputy who knew of the warrant made the arrest at Richardson’s residence. He was taken to jail and held without bond.

• On July 21, a deputy investigated a report of theft at a Rainbow Drive residence at Willow Springs.

A 75-year-old man there told the officer a generator valued at $1,000, a gas can and a couple of small tools had been swiped. The man said there had been several squatters living in the area and the items went missing at about the same time some of them left.