A 16-year old Merrill male youth was taken into custody and will be referred on charges after deputies investigated a motor vehicle theft, on Monday, Oct. 19.

Deputies were kept busy last week as snow returned to the area. There were 26 vehicles that were reported to have gone in the ditch and 10 crashes were reported to have caused property damage.

At around 12:30 p.m. Thursday afternoon, a southbound vehicle being driven by a Woodruff man lost control and was struck by a plow truck on US Hwy 51 near County Rd K in the Town of Merrill, no injuries were reported. State Rd 64 at County Rd X in the Town of Pine River was blocked for two hours Thursday afternoon after a semi jack-knifed in the roadway.

A 33-year old Merrill man was arrested Saturday morning on a criminal traffic charge. A deputy stopped the vehicle the man was operating on County Rd K in the Town of Scott at 2:45 a.m. after radar showed he was traveling at 77 MPH in the 55 MPH zone. The man displayed signs of impairment and was placed through field sobriety tests, he was arrested for a third offense of operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated and cited for the speeding violation.

A 50-year old Wausau woman was arrested Saturday afternoon after deputies investigated a suspicious vehicle in the Town of Pine River. At 3:30 p.m. a report was received of a possible stalled vehicle on County Rd P. The woman showed signs of impairment and was arrested for operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated third offense, she will also face a criminal traffic charge for failing to install an ignition interlock device which is required due to a previous OWI arrest.

A 34-year old Merrill woman was cited for operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated following a crash Sunday morning in the Town of Harding. A 911 call reported the crash on County Rd E at the Copper River. The driver refused medical transport, she was cited for the first offense and released to a responsible party.

A Town of Pine River man reported he was the victim of fraud last week. The man found what he thought was a John Deere Gator for sale on E-Bay and began corresponding with the seller who told the victim she was in the state of Wyoming. The Gator, which normally sells for $7,000 was offered at $2,000 as the seller explained she wanted to sell property prior to being deployed. The victim was instructed to send the funds via gift cards in $500 increments. The victim was able to contact E-Bay and they were able to refund $300 of the funds before it was collected, the victim incurred a loss of $1,700.

On Thursday morning an Irma woman became the victim of a scam. The woman was called and told that someone had placed an order using her information on Amazon. The caller offered to track the order in an attempt to find the “thief’ but insisted the woman provide them with a $500 gift card. The woman went to a box store and put $500 on a gift card and called the scammer back with the numbers. The scammers told her the gift card was defective and instructed her to go to another box store for another $500 gift card, which she did. When the woman realized she was the victim of a scam she had incurred a loss of $1,000. 20019978 & 20020043

Ten people reported striking deer last past week. On Monday evening a deputy was on patrol on State Rd 17 north of County Rd C when a bear ran out of the ditch and struck the side of his squad causing moderate damage.