Man: I was ambushed! Police: Hold on, something’s not right…no, this is false

Talk about it

His wife called 911 after he returned home from a bar last Wednesday night. The back of his head was bleeding heavily. He claimed two teenage assailants whacked him from behind with a board or stick in back of Mel’s Midtowner, then walked off. They said nothing, didn’t rob him. The man collapsed, may have briefly passed out. Checking all this out, officers quickly realized the story didn’t add up.

The police investigation eventually showed the 64-year-old local man was intoxicated inside the bar, stumbling around and had been kicked out. He was also seen stumbling outside as he went to drive away in his vehicle.

No teenage assailants were spotted by anyone else.

After gathering the evidence, police surmised the man’s injury was likely caused by his high level of intoxication, which affected his ability to walk, let alone to drive. This was explained to the man while he was issued a $731 fine for drunk driving.

Also last week, River Falls police:

• Arrested two local men, ages 20 and 44, for fighting inside an apartment at 416 Cemetery Road. The struggle apparently centered around a woman – the younger man’s girlfriend, the older man’s daughter. The relationship was in trouble. The older man and the daughter stopped in for a visit, and things went awry. The two males ended up punching at each other while rolling across the living room floor. Each later got a $177 fine. The older man was also taken to county jail in Ellsworth because the fight violated terms of his court-ordered probation.

• Cited a 19-year-old UW-RF female student for inattentive driving during a crash at Division Street and Wasson Lane Sunday afternoon. The woman allegedly rearended another driver who was turning. She claimed to have no memory of the crash and didn’t realize what had occurred until her airbag deployed. Later she claimed a medical condition may have caused this mental lapse. She was given a $101.40 fine.

• Cited a 16-year-old local boy for disorderly conduct at the high school. The boy allegedly cut a female student’s wrist with a plastic knife on two different occasions. The second time, near the lockers, the victim was clearly upset and tried to pull her wrist away. The cuts did bleed and she reported him. He was given an $82.50 fine.

• Investigated where a bag of pot came from that was discovered by a Kwik Trip clerk on a table full of cookies at 3:20 a.m. Saturday. The marijuana weighed in at 4.4 grams. Store surveillance video was reviewed to try to find the marijuana-bag owner, but to no avail. The pot is now secured in the police department’s evidence room.

For more, read Police Beat in the March 17 print edition of the River Falls Journal.

Tags: police and courts, river falls, local news, uw river falls, news, business