Local Briefs November 7, 2011
Care package collecting starts today
Blue Star Mothers of America is collecting items for U.S. troop care packages.
Collection barrels are at The Picket Fence in Hayden, the Coeur d'Alene Police Department, Sunset Lanes, River City Lanes, Mountain West Bank in Post Falls, The Hico station in Rathdrum and Mother's Haven in Coeur d'Alene.
The collection starts today and will run through the end of November.
Items needed include white socks, individual drink powder packets, jerky, protein bars and hygiene products etc.
Home, garage damaged by fire
HAYDEN - A garage and home were damaged in a fire Friday morning.
There were no injuries.
Firefighters were called to a home at 616 Opal St., when a neighbor reported flames and smoke coming from an attached garage about 8:45.
The fire was contained to the garage, but there was some smoke and ceiling damage inside the home, according to a press release.
A metal fire door and a firewall between the garage and home prevented the from spreading, firefighters said.
A couple and two children live in the home. At the time of the fire, the adult male was the only one home.
Investigators said the fire appeared to have spread to the garage from hot ashes from a wood stove discarded onto the ground just outside the home.
Men say they were robbed at gunpoint
COEUR d'ALENE - Two Coeur d'Alene men told police they were robbed at gunpoint Thursday night.
They told police two men drove up to them in the parking lot of Lowe's Home Improvement, at 901 Appleway Ave., pointed a gun at them and got away with $20.
The suspect vehicle was a white Ford Explorer with Idaho license plates, with tinted windows, according to a police report. One of the robbers reportedly had a black bandana over his face.
The two alleged victims had met, at the parking lot, a friend who had just broken up with her boyfriend.
The female friend had just left when the Ford Explorer pulled up next to the two men's vehicle about 10:30.
After getting the money, the robbers' vehicle sped out of the parking lot.
The alleged victims pursued in their vehicle on some side streets north of Lowe's and cornered the SUV in a dead end, but the driver of the SUV managed to slip away.
The alleged victims waited three hours to report the incident, according to the police report. They told police they were scared, didn't know what to do, but contacted police at the urging of one of their mothers.