Police Get Calls About Bikinis, TV Remotes

Police Get Calls About Bikinis, TV Remotes

REXBURG, Idaho (AP) - Law enforcement agencies depend on citizens in the community to be their eyes and ears. But officials in this southeastern Idaho town aren't sure how to respond to reports of skimpy bikinis, lost TV remotes, menacing squirrels, and a report of a neighbor's shrub trespassing.

"You try to help, you don't want to seem uncaring," said Randy Lewis, a captain with the Rexburg Police Department.

Those kinds of calls come in daily to the police, including one where Lewis ended up using a lasso to capture a hissing badger running loose in an apartment.

"What a mistake," he said. "It about drug me off."

Even though many calls don't fall within what police normally do, officers still respond to complaints of loitering ducks and children who won't mind their parents.

Lewis said the Rexburg police probably get more of those types of calls than larger departments.

"We don't have a high frequency of serious crimes, though we do have murders, rapes, child molestations and bank robberies," Lewis said. "Thank goodness they don't happen every day."

Rexburg Police Lt. Ron Larson said he thinks many of the calls are caused by residents not knowing the difference between civil and criminal offenses.

"It might not have anything to do with the police, but they don't know who else to call," he told the Post Register.

Most of the unusual calls come during the summer, he said, and already the department has fielded calls about mean notes taped to trash bins and reports of residents receiving offers of being hypnotized over the phone.

Lewis said the hypnotist calls could be coming from students at Brigham Young University-Idaho as part of their homework.

But a university official said he is not aware of any class requiring that type of assignment.

Meanwhile, Rexburg police will continue to take the calls in stride.

"We don't want to discourage anyone from calling in," Lewis said.