October 26, 2001
Chief LaGrange get his first arrest -- early
By Ryan Good
Staff Writer
Some people love what they do so much they can't wait to get started.
Newly hired Tiffin Police Chief David A. LaGrange, while staying at the Quality Inn, 1927 S. SR 53, last weekend, stopped three people who were stealing license plates in the parking lot of the hotel. With only his badge and his voice, he got the three suspects to surrender.
"I went out in a T-shirt and stocking feet," LaGrange said Thursday from his Savannah, Ga., home.
He heard a truck idling in the parking lot at about 12:30 a.m. Sunday and saw three people sitting in it not doing anything. After hearing the truck move and then idle again, he saw the driver of the truck remove a license plate from a van. He then called the front desk and told them to contact the sheriff's office as he headed outside.
"I knew they were up to something," LaGrange said.
LaGrange said he originally was just going to get the license plate number of the truck, but when he got outside it didn't quite work that way.
"I didn't figure to actually confront them," LaGrange said.
When he got outside he saw one of the subjects in the truck attempt to take a license plate off of another truck in the lot with a power drill.
"The guy was pulling a tag off a truck," LaGrange said.
He told the three to freeze as he held up his badge.
"All I had was a good command presence and a very loud voice," LaGrange said.
The driver, he said, originally started to run as he threw the drill in the back of his truck before surrendering. He and the other two in the truck were on the ground by the time sheriff's deputy Matt Huffman came and took them into custody.
The new chief said he was shivering by the time the ordeal was over, but from an adrenaline rush, not the cold. He said he can't remember if it was cold out that night or not.
Had any of the three been armed or presented a threat to him, he would have let them go, LaGrange said.
LaGrange was in town for the weekend to take a physical and to do some house hunting. He is set to be sworn in as police chief Nov. 19.
The case has been turned over to the prosecutor's office for possible charges, according to the report filed from the incident.