Cited and released

By Larry Judkins

Glenn County Observer

A search for Steven Stoltenberg (not the Steven Stoltenberg of Artois Feed and Grain) resulted in the driver of a Hyundai being pulled over for multiple vehicle code violations early Tuesday afternoon.

This, in turn, resulted in a search of the car, and a substantial amount of marijuana being found.

It all began around noon on April 20, when Glenn County dispatchers received a report of a man walking down the middle of the road in the area of Lely Park and the Orland courthouse, flipping off drivers as they passed by.

Given that Steven Stoltenberg (you know which one) has a history of walking down the middle of the road in this very area, authorities reasonably concluded that the person reported to dispatch could be him.

Orland police officers began searching the area, with one of them spotting the less-than-road-worthy black Hyundai.

Its rear license plate was utterly unreadable unless one was literally just a few feet away from it, it had a bad tire, and no vehicle registration.

The officer who made the stop in the 200 block of East Walker Street, Thomas Roenspie, is a K-9 officer. It is presently unknown if the K-9 alerted on the car after the stop, but the car was searched and a rather large plastic bag of marijuana (“Way more than an ounce,” commented Orland Police Chief Joe Vlach) was found inside.

The driver of the Hyundai apparently had no proper identification, and a Spanish-speaking OPD officer had to be called to the scene to assist with translation. The driver was cited and released, and the bag of marijuana was confiscated.

A white pickup arrived between 12:30 and 12:45 p.m., and the law enforcement officers left the scene. At first it appeared that the pickup was going to tow the Hyundai, but instead the driver of the car jumped in and followed the pickup west on East Walker Street.

Both vehicles turned left into the parking area for what was once known as Fountain Square, just east of East Street and what was once known as Aileen Porter Realty, and that was the last that was seen of the dilapidated Hyundai.