Man allegedly involved in driving into bake shop, drove into other business

AMMON — A 23-year-old man that allegedly caused damage to a local bake shop, was involved in another similar incident the same day.

According to court documents filed by the Bonneville County Sheriff’s Office, deputies were dispatched to Geraldine’s Bake Shoppe & Deli in Ammon around 5:15 a.m. Wednesday. Employees said there was a man that drove into a window and that he got out of the car and tried getting into the store.

The Geraldine’s Bake Shoppe & Deli incident

That man was identified as Karl A. Watson. EastIdahoNews.com interviewed an employee the day the incident happened. Click here to read the story.

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When deputies arrived along with a trooper from Idaho State Police, Watson was in the driver’s seat. He began talking to law enforcement.

“Karl told him that the window was moving. He said that he tried to tell the employees at Geraldine’s to get out or they were going to die. He also said that people were disappearing all over,” court documents said.

Dispatch notified deputies that Watson had a warrant. He was then placed into custody.

A K9 officer went around the car he was in. Deputies found a vape pen with a brown substance in it. The brown substance was tested and was presumptive positive for cannabis. Additionally, there was paraphernalia located in the car.

Court documents say he ended up getting charged with three misdemeanors which include malicious injury to property, possession of a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia.

He was given a $25,000 bond. He pleaded not guilty to all three charges. He will be sent to pretrial services after posting a bond.

The Batteries Plus incident

In another incident the same day, Idaho Falls police responded at 6 a.m. to a hit-and-run at Batteries Plus off Channing Way.

There are three large glass windows on the north side of the building. The windows were damaged. There were tire tracks in the snow leading to the windows, as well as tire marks on the sidewalk directly in front of the windows. No one was inside the store during the time of the incident, court documents said.

The center section of the windows was lying on the ground on the sidewalk. The other two sections of the windows were still standing but had been pushed into the store.

A sheriff’s deputy came to the scene to assist after he was involved in the previous incident with Watson.

At this point, deputies had already transported Watson to a local hospital for jail clearance after the bake shop incident. An Idaho Falls police officer went to the hospital to speak with Watson and asked him what had happened in the city and if he had been involved in the Batteries Plus accident.

Watson was confused, documents said.

“Karl told me he had not run into a building since he was a teenager,” an officer said in court documents.

The officer said there was an accident at Batteries Plus. Watson asked, “I went to Batteries Plus?”

He told the officer what he remembered. He said he and a lady were talking and the next thing he knew, he was at Dixie’s Diner. He said he was there alone, even though he told the officer there were other people with him.

He noticed the back door at Dixie’s Diner was open and said he was chasing his daughter around.

He remembered, “rolling forward, hit the bumper, went onto the bumper a little bit and… slammed on the brakes and went back.”

He said he thought everything was a dream and remembers very little of what happened.

Officers double-checked to see if his daughter was okay, since Watson mentioned her, and requested a welfare check. She was not with him during the incident and was safe.

Watson said he drove a Dodge Avenger. The owner of Batteries Plus had surveillance footage that showed his vehicle crashing into the windows. The damage was estimated to be around $10,000.

Court records show he was charged with felony malicious injury to property. He was given a $15,000 bail. He is scheduled for a preliminary hearing on April 11 at 1 p.m. at the Bonneville County courthouse.