Man caught ‘spinning cookies’ on cemetery property

A former Weiser resident was arrested by Weiser City Police on Friday, April 15 after reportedly “spinning cookies” at Hillcrest Cemetery.

 Kevin Yasuda, 58, formerly of Weiser, was reported by cemetery workers after they witnessed him driving his red 1997 Ford F-150 in tight circles on cemetery grass while continuing to accelerate, resulting in ruts that damaged the area.

 “On Friday at about 11 a.m., we were dispatched up to Hillcrest Cemetery by the cemetery workers, saying there was a pickup out in the cemetery spinning cookies in the grass,” said Weiser Police Chief, Carl Smith. “When we got there, the pickup had stopped. We made contact with the driver. He was the lone occupant in the vehicle. The pickup was covered with grass and mud. You could see his tire tracks out in the grass. There were no monuments damaged, but there was a significant amount of grass damaged. He was in a part of the cemetery where there are only a few markers, so we were fortunate that way.”

 A K-9 unit responded to the call, the officer ultimately suspecting Yasuda was under the influence.

 “After my officer made contact with him, [and] was conversing with him, he suspected that he (Yasuda) was under the influence of something,” Smith said. “The officer that showed up was our K-9 unit, so they went around the vehicle [and] the K-9 indicated on the search of the vehicle. They found narcotics in the vehicle, and he was arrested for narcotics, and was also charged with malicious [injury] to property to the cemetery and is being held in the Washington County jail.”

 Smith added that Yasuda, a former Weiser resident, was staying at a local motel at the time and that the Weiser Police Department is familiar with him.

 “He’s been in Weiser before,” Smith said. “We’ve had dealings with him before.”