GILROY
– It may have been just a bad joke, but Gilroy police are taking
a knife brandishing at City Hall seriously.
GILROY – It may have been just a bad joke, but Gilroy police are taking a knife brandishing at City Hall seriously.
Officer Stan Devlin is investigating an incident involving a female clerk at the city’s finance counter and a man with a pocket knife who asked her for money Tuesday.
According to the clerk’s supervisor, Carmen Medrano, Broder Riewerts approached a payment window around 12:45 p.m., showed the clerk a small pocketknife and asked, “Is this sharp enough to get all your fives and ones?”
Medrano said the clerk, who was manning the counter alone, had the presence of mind not to panic and responded to the man by answering, “No. But it’s sharp enough for me to call the police.”
Riewerts, 67, then asked what the balance of his water bill was. The clerk gave him the balance, and Riewerts said his wife would come in later to pay the bill. Riewerts then left City Hall.
Police would not release the name of the victim.
Riewerts could not be reached before deadline, but according to police, his account differs from the city’s. Cpl. Erik Tiner said Riewerts characterized the incident as a “misunderstanding.”
Immediately after Riewerts left, the clerk told co-workers about the incident and police were called to the scene to take a report.
Police are not filing charges against Riewerts, but they have sent the case to the district attorney’s office. The district attorney’s office will review the incident and determine whether charges can be pressed.
Depending on the severity of the situation, a brandishing charge can be a felony or misdemeanor, the police department said.
“It’s possible the man may have been joking, but the victim is not convinced of that,” Devlin said Tuesday.
Since Riewerts gave a name and address to the clerk when he asked for his water bill balance, Devlin used that information to locate the man.
Devlin did not return phone calls prior to Wednesday’s deadline after he was interviewed at City Hall.
“I don’t recall anything like this ever happening,” said City Clerk Rhonda Pellin, who has worked for the city for 25 years. “We’ve taken verbal abuse before, but we never had a weapon pulled.”
Medrano said the incident was a first for her, too.
“We’ve called the police before because of irate customers, but no one has ever had a weapon,” Medrano said.
Water bills have been the source of contention for a handful of Gilroy residents in recent weeks. Customers have complained that the city was overcharging them for an amount of water – in some cases 98,000 gallons – they say they could have never used.
Medrano would not get into details of the man’s account, but said the water bill showed nothing out of the ordinary.
“It was a normal billing situation,” Medrano said. “The customer was not irate.”
Medrano said the clerk was “OK” immediately following the incident, but after talking with fellow employees realized the potential seriousness of the situation.
“We felt we needed to report it to the police,” Medrano said.
