Patrol Stop Leads to Arrests

A routine patrol inquiry led to the arrest of three people on Friday.

According to a press release from the East Ridge Police Department, an officer on routine patrol saw a suspicious vehicle in the 700 block of Frawley Road and began asking questions of the occupants.

Officers discovered that the tag on the vehicle was registered to a different vehicle. The driver admitted to stealing the tag from a Chattanooga car dealership, officials said. Further investigation of another vehicle revealed that it was stolen in Georgia.

Officers also subsequently discovered cocaine, a resale amount of methamphetamine, drug paraphernalia, and over $5000.00 in cash.

Joshua David Strickenbarger, 30, of Rossville, was charged with Theft over $1,000 and Possession of Drug Paraphernalia; Misty Nichole Umbreit, 26, of a Frawley Road address, was charged with Possession of Meth for Resale, Possession of Drug Paraphernalia and Theft over $1,000; Thomas Ellis Tucker, 46, of a Celo Avenue address in Chattanooga, was charged with Possession of Methamphetamine, Possession of Drug Paraphernalia and Theft under $500. The three are scheduled to appear in East Ridge Municipal Court on Dec. 1.

About Dick Cook

Dick Cook has lived in East Ridge since the Kennedy Administration when his parents bought a house on Marietta Street. Dick graduated from ERHS in 1976 before going on to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga where he studied Political Science. Dick worked for the Chattanooga Free-Press and the Chattanooga Times Free Press for 22 years. Free-Press Sports Editor Roy Exum plucked him out of production in 1989 and gave him a job as a sports reporter. Dick covered everything from prep sports to the whitewater events on the Ocoee River for the 1996 Olympics. When Chattanooga's two paper's merged, he became the Crime Reporter covering both the Chattanooga Police and Fire Departments. He was among reporters who were honored by the Associated Press for the TFP's coverage of the 2002 fog-shrouded crash on I-75 in Catoosa County, Dick and his wife, Cathy, live on Marlboro Avenue where they are seen frequently chasing around their three grandsons.