A Bainbridge Island man turned detective to try to put the collar on an elusive litter bug who turned Sunrise Drive into his personal dump.
Our island’s own Sherlock and his search for justice were detailed in a police report filed last week with the Bainbridge Island Police Department.
The green gumshoe brought his case to island police the morning of Thursday, Jan. 3.
The man and his neighbors had recently noticed a large amount of litter along side the road in front of their homes on Sunrise north of Day Road. The roadside rubbish had been accumulating over the course of a month, so the riled resident strapped on his daisy crushers, hit the pavement and was on the case.
He collected samples of the litter from the side of the road. The resident found multiple McDonald’s fast-food bags and wrappers as well as a crumpled note containing phone numbers and names. The bags still had receipts with the time and date of the fast-food purchases.
The Sunrise sleuth was able to run a reverse search on the phone numbers. The digits were mostly dead ends, but one phone number jumped out like a spring-loaded snake in a peanut brittle can.
A number from the note led to a construction contractor out of Poulsbo who keeps a Rolling Bay Post Office box. The Sunrise shamus had frequently observed the contractor picking up his mail at the Rolling Bay Post Office in the past.
From there, the resident’s deduction was simple: The contractor was picking up lunch on the go before driving out to Rolling Bay to pick up his mail. Then, with a full belly and an empty bag, he would toss the waste out the window.
The resident thought the evidence was enough for the cops to pinch the perp, but he found out otherwise. Island flatfoots informed him that the evidence was not conclusive enough to lead to charges.
The trash tracker was disappointed, but understood.
Police said that the best evidence would be an eyewitness who finger the trash tosser.
Taking the officer’s advice, the resident returned home to talk with his neighbors and come up with a plan to catch the litterbug in action.
