Public Safety

Aug. 7, 2011

MAN RESCUED FROM LAKE
An unresponsive man pulled from Lake Michigan owes his life to the quick
actions of bystanders and emergency responders.
Mark Urness, 53, of Providence, New Jersey, was swimming in Lake Michigan
near the Lower Herring Lake outlet on Aug. 1 when he lost consciousness.
Bystanders pulled him from the water, Benzie County Sheriff Rory Heckman
said.
Bystanders started CPR and emergency responders took over when they
arrived soon after, reviving the man so he could be taken to Munson
Medical Center for treatment, Heckman said. In addition to deputies,
Frankfort Fire, Benzonia Fire, Benzie EMS and the U.S. Coast Guard
responded to the emergency call.


MAN ARRESTED FOR HIT AND RUN
Police arrrested a 22-year-old from Mesick Aug. 1 after Wexford County
Sheriff’s deputies said he vanished after a crash that caused serious
injury to an ORV driver.
The crash, which occurred a day earlier, happened when a pickup truck
collided with an ORV on N 3 1/2 Road near W 10 Road in Mesick. Brian David
Lloyd, 34, from Dexter, the driver of the ORV, suffered multiple injuries.
After the crash, Wexford County Sheriff Gary Finstrom asked for the
public’s help in locating the driver of the pickup truck, which was
believed to have suffered a damaged front grill and headlight.


NAKED DRIVER WANTED
Police are on the look-out after a woman said she was riding a bicycle
with her daughter when she saw a man stopped in his car at an
intersection, naked and masturbating.
The incident happened Aug. 1 at around 9:45 a.m. at Wadsworth and 13th
streets, TC Police Capt. Steve Morgan said. He said police searched the
area that morning and the following day but were unable to locate the man.
Area summer camps were warned about the incident.
The suspect, described as a white male with white chest hair, was driving
a dark gray Toyota Prius. Anyone with information is asked to call police.


SIX INJURED; GARFIELD CLOSED
A two-car crash that sent six people to the hospital closed part of
Garfield Road south of TC for four and a half hours Aug. 2.
A 2004 Honda Pilot was headed south at around 3 p.m. in heavy rain when
the driver lost control and the SUV slid sideways into opposing traffic,
police said.
The SUV crashed into a 1997 GMC van coming the other way.
A husband and wife, both age 50, and their two daughters, ages 21 and 23,
all of them from Duluth, Ga., were in the Honda. A 28-year-old man and his
27-year-old girlfriend, both from Manton, were in the GMC. Everyone was
taken to Munson Medical Center for injuries of various levels of
seriousness.
Garfield was closed from Lardie Road to River Road while rescuers tended
to the injured and a crash investigation team surveyed the incident, Grand
Traverse Sheriff Lt. Christopher Clark said.

CAR HITS CYCLIST
A 20-year-old driver from Charlevoix couldn’t see in the glare of the sun
and struck a bicyclist as she came around a curve.
Alicia Drost struck the cyclist on Boyne City-Charlevoix Road near US 31
on July 31 at around 8 a.m., Charlevoix County Sheriff Don Schneider said
Drost was temporarily blinded by the sun’s glare on the wet roadway,
Schneider said. The cyclist, Donald Vansuiliehem, 61, of Charlevoix, was
not seriously injured but he was taken to Charlevoix Area Hospital as a
precaution.


MAN WALKS INTO TRAFFIC
An 18-year-old walked into the path of an oncoming car, apparently in an
effort to commit suicide, police said.
The pedestrian was struck on M-32 west of Pine Ridge Dr. in Chester
Township at around 5:20 p.m. July 31, according to an Otsego County
Sheriff’s Department press release.
The teen was taken to Otsego Memorial Hospital to receive treatment for
serious injuries but his condition is stable, police said. During the
investigation police determined the man intentionally walked in front of
the vehicle.


91-YEAR-OLD SCAMMED
Two Rite Aid employees became suspicious when an elderly woman wanted to
use Western Union to wire a large amount of money to Mexico, police said.
Officers from the Petoskey Department of Public Safety investigated the
Aug. 3 incident at the store on W. Mitchell St. after a 91-year-old
Petoskey resident told police



she received a call from her grandson requesting $6,000.
Police warn this sort of scam regularly targets the elderly. Police
determined the woman was the victim of a con and that it was a criminal,
not her grandson, who requested the money.

TC KNIFE FIGHT
Police interrupted a knife fight on the 100 block of South Union Street
that left one man injured.
TC Police were called to the scene at around 2:40 a.m. Aug. 5 and found a
37-year-old Vestaburg man waiving a knife at several people, Capt. Brian
Heffner said. The man was ordered at gunpoint to drop the knife and was
arrested.
A warrant was issued for a second man, a 26-year-old from TC, who is
accused of stabbing a third man before he fled the scene.
The alleged victim, a 31-year-old from TC, received treatment at the
scene, Heffner said.

TEENAGER FLEES
POLICE
When TC Police attempted to pull over a silver Ford for speeding on 14th
Street, the driver of the vehicle attempted to outrun police, leading to a
pursuit.
The brief pursuit led into the neighborhood south of 14th and ended when
the car left the roadway and ended up in a yard on Arnold Court at around
10:45 p.m. on July 31, Capt. Steve Morgan said.
The 16-year-old driver, who police deter-mined was drunk and had a
suspended driver’s license, was taken into custody to face charges in
probate court including fleeing and eluding.