Tobacco training set
Published 12:00 am Tuesday, May 15, 2001
A training session on tobacco ordinance compliance will be Wednesday evening at the J.
Tuesday, May 15, 2001
A training session on tobacco ordinance compliance will be Wednesday evening at the J.C. Hormel Nature Center in Austin.
The session begins 7 p.m. Wednesday in the Ruby Rupner Auditorium at the nature center.
Recently, the Mower County Sheriff’s Department and Austin Police Department conducted compliance checks for tobacco sales throughout the area.
The results were encouraging, according to spokesmen for the twin agencies, although some stores did not pass the compliance checks.
Wednesday night’s training for licensees will hopefully help their efforts regarding age-restricted tobacco products.
Intersection collision
A three-vehicle accident resulted in the arrest of one of the drivers Monday afternoon.
According to an Austin Police Department report, the mishap occurred at 2:45 p.m. Monday at the intersection of Eighth Street NE and Fourth Avenue NE.
A sport utility vehicle was stopped at the four-way stop intersection, when the driver saw another vehicle approach the intersection.
When the driver proceeded through the intersection, the other vehicle failed to stop for the stop sign and struck the vehicle. Then, the driver proceeded on and struck a parked car nearby.
While witnesses watched, the driver of the vehicle exited with two companions and went to Reed’s Fourth Avenue Food and Fuel. There, the trio were picked up by another driver, who drove away from the scene.
With a description of the vehicle and the occupants, Austin police were notified and the vehicle was stopped a short time later in northeast Austin.
With the assistance of a Hispanic interpreter, officers ascertained the driver of the vehicle involved in the accident was Juan Fercia Cruz, 21, of 305 16th St. SE. He claimed the brakes failed on the vehicle, which is registered to Armando Vargas, Austin.
When an officer checked the brakes, they performed adequately
Cruz was taken to the Mower County Jail on charges of a stop sign violation and leaving the scene of a personal injury accident.
Because he also gave another name to officers, the Immigration and Naturalization Service was contacted and the INS ordered Cruz be held for a positive identification.
The three occupants of the vehicle struck in the intersection did not require hospitalization, according to the police report.
Traveler bilks clerk
DEXTER – The Windmill Travel Center reported being bilked of $241 by a parent employing a Minnesota State Lottery scratch-game scheme.
According to a Mower County Sheriff’s Department report, a man accompanied by a woman and two children visited the Windmill Travel Center at 2:45 p.m. Saturday.
After cashing in an instant scratch-game ticket for $25, the man asked for 16 new scratch-game tickets, which he was given.
Moments later, the same man returned to the clerk and turned in tickets totaling $241 in prize money.
The clerk gave him the money, but then realized she had failed to verify the initial game ticket he submitted. When she did, it turned out not to be a winner.
The adults and their children left in a late-model sport utility vehicle.
Homes vandalized
GRAND MEADOW – Four homes in Grand Meadow were vandalized last weekend.
The homes were located in the southeast and southwest parts of the community.
In each case, graffiti was spray-painted on the homes as well as garages, sidewalk and driveways.
The graffiti messages alleged the occupants of the residences "smoked marijuana" and because they are "very similar," according to the Mower County Sheriff’s Department report, they are deemed to have been painted by the same perpetrators.
Also the use of the same colors suggests to investigators a similarity in the crimes.
At one scene of vandalism, an empty can of spray paint was found.
The Grand Meadow Police Department is assisting the Sheriff’s Department in the investigation.
Woman charges assault
A 22-year-old Austin woman alleges a man attempted to rape her early Saturday.
According to a Mower County Sheriff’s Department report, the woman told investigators the man picked her up at the Margaritaville bar in downtown Austin late Friday night under the pretense of showing her a home in the country where he lived.
The man then drove to 20th Street NW, parked his car along the roadside, reclined the front seat and attempted to kiss the woman.
The alleged victim resisted and when a Sheriff’s Department patrol car approached, she got out of the vehicle and ran to the deputy with her story that a sexual assault had occurred.
The man, identified by authorities as David Bellikka, 19, of Austin, was taken into custody and placed in the Mower County Jail, pending a court appearance.
He denied the woman’s allegations.
Call Lee Bonorden at 434-2232 or e-mail him at lee.bonorden@austindailyherald.com.