He got a ride to the “Gray Bar Hotel,” instead, Sheriff Ed Lester said, referring to the county jail.

Police were called about a disturbance at a house on the 1100 block of Waukesha Street around 4:30 p.m. Thursday. They were met by a man who said his nephew had been inside breaking things.

Joshua Patrick Smith, 34, of Butte had just left, but a man and woman inside said he had been drinking whiskey and began acting erratically, endangering them by throwing things around, breaking a window, and tossing a TV on the ground and punching it.

Police found Smith walking down the street and cuffed him. Then they took him to the Butte-Silver Bow Detention Center.

Smith was booked on three misdemeanor complaints of partner or family member assault causing reasonable apprehension of bodily injury and one misdemeanor count of criminal mischief for breaking things. He was still in jail Friday morning.

Discount shopping at Walmart

Police say two men were walking around Walmart “discount shopping” Thursday afternoon by switching tags on items.

Among other things, they got "bargains" on an Ozark Trail backpack, which went from $42.44 to $3 with a different tag; a flannel jacket that went from $21 to $5; a $9 pair of leggings that became $3.88; a woman’s pair of pants reduced from $17.84 to $3.88; and an $11.96 coat that became $5.

All told, they paid $24.44 for items that had originally been marked for $102.96. When approached by Walmart staff, they took off in a brown Buick but were soon stopped by police.

Officers arrested Cody James Ingraham, 33, of Deer Lodge on two outstanding warrants and for misdemeanor shoplifting and criminal trespass. He bonded out early Friday morning. The other man was cited but not arrested because it was his first shoplifting offense, police said.

Another discount shopper

Shortly after that incident, police say, a 28-year-old Butte woman went through the self-checkout at Walmart without scanning several items.

The things Shasta Siskiyou Gothro scanned came up to $105.66. If the things she didn’t scan were added, the tab would have been $291, police say.

When told that it couldn’t have been an accident because there were too many items not scanned, she said, “Fair enough,” according to police. She was arrested for misdemeanor shoplifting. She bonded out an hour later.