Police in Milton-Freewater arrested a local transient Tuesday for violating a restraining order 38 times.

Chief of Police Doug Boedigheimer said Richard Lewis Kelly Jr., 38, called and texted a Milton-Freewater woman who had obtained a protective order from a Washington court. Kelly violated the order for about a month before police were able to nab him.

Boedigheimer said an anonymous tip at about 4 p.m. alerted police that Kelly was in the 100 block of North Main Street, near the home of the woman who had sought protection from Kelly. Officers arrested Kelly on the spot and booked him into the Umatilla County Jail, Pendleton, which released him by Thursday.

Police had tried before to catch Kelly, Boedigheimer said, but he was always gone by the time officers arrived. Kellys transient status made him difficult to find, the chief said, and calling meant he could have been anywhere.

Its touch tracking these rascals down sometimes, Boedigheimer said.

In addition to the violations, police charged Kelly with telephonic harassment, a Class B misdemeanor.

Court records show Kelly has convictions for delivering drugs within 1,000 feet of a school, a Class A felony, in 1998, resisting arrest in 1998, menacing in 2008 and contempt of court from May 19.