A Silverthorne resident reported a curious incident in February that left her concerned about the safety of her neighborhood.

The woman told police that an unknown person had placed a potato on a coat hanger, left it on the woman’s front porch, then rang the doorbell and ran away.

When the woman answered the door, there was nobody there. The potato had also been carved with some “very crude graffiti.”

“The citizen found this very unusual and alarming (rightfully so), and was concerned about the general safety of the neighborhood,” police reported.

Officers spent some extra time with the woman to reassure her that the neighborhood was safe. She insisted they take the potato in as evidence.

squatter accidentally reports self

Silverthorne police received a report last month of an open door at the Old Dillon Inn, a storied honkytonk and Mexican restaurant that closed in 2007.

Upon investigating, police found an extensive squatter’s camp where it was obvious that “some people had been sleeping (and other things) inside the building.” Officers cleaned up the mess and re-secured the building.

Soon after, a transient man came to the police station and demanded to be let back into the building because he left of some of his belongings there.

“He was denied access, thanked for his spontaneous comments that amounted to a confession, and left the Police Department with a summons to appear in Court for trespassing,” police reported.

Tab tussle lands man in jail

At around midnight in mid-February, Breckenridge police were dispatched to a bar where a man was reportedly refusing to pay his tab and being aggressive with staff.

Upon arrival, officers found the man screaming in a corner while a bouncer held him in a headlock. The bar’s security officer told police that the man had refused to pay for an $8 shot and started getting aggressive with bar staff.

When it was clear the man wasn’t going to pay, bar staff just asked him to leave. He refused and started running around in the bar, prompting the bouncer to physically restrain him.

While police were talking to the man, he “kept yelling that he was raped by the bouncer.” When police asked him how, he said the bouncer had grabbed his genitals.

The man continued to be uncooperative with police and continually threatened to sue them while being placed in a patrol car. He was booked into the Summit County Jail without further incident.

Spitting mad

A woman asked police to file charges against another woman who allegedly spit on her during an altercation in Breckenridge, but she ended up being cited instead when her story didn’t check out.

The incident began in a parking garage when a car was backing out of its space and almost hit the woman. The driver got out of the car, and the two got into a verbal argument. The driver kept yelling “Hit me, hit me,” at the woman and was “in her face,” she told police. The woman said the driver then stepped back about 5 feet and spit on her.

The woman started to leave but said the driver followed her while filming her on a cellphone. The woman ducked into a restaurant where she was set to meet some friends. They insisted she take a shot of alcohol to calm down.

A police officer asked the woman what she wanted done, and she said she wanted the driver charged for spitting on her. The officer said she couldn’t do that because there was no evidence the woman had been spit on.

At that time, another officer who had been interviewing the driver arrived and said two witnesses said they saw the woman kicking the driver’s car. She was issued a summons for damage to private property.

—Compiled from police reports