Mount Rainier erupted, and he was the sole survivor. That’s why he broke into a truck, he told deputies

A burglary suspect told Pierce County sheriff’s deputies he broke into a car near Eatonville early Wednesday because he was the sole survivor of an eruption of Mount Rainier and needed the gun and jacket he took to fend for himself.

Deputies were dispatched to a reported burglary at a home in the 41900 block of Lynch Creek Road north of Eatonville about 2:45 a.m., sheriff’s spokesman Ed Troyer said.

The deputies met with a homeowner who said he was outside his home when he heard someone talking, Troyer said. He saw a man talking to himself and told him to stay there while he grabbed his phone.

The homeowner came outside, only to find the muttering man had wandered away. The homeowner drove down the road and found the man and told him to stick around until law enforcement could arrive. The man instead went to a home he had broken into earlier and pulled a metal pole on the fellow who’d been following him.

Deputies arrived and interviewed the man whose home was broken into, Troyer said, but he said he didn’t want to press charges and declined to be interviewed further.

The deputies then detained and interviewed the man who’d been talking with himself.

The man had three bags and a security firm’s jacket with him, Troyer said. The man told deputies all three bags were his but that he’d stolen the jacket from a nearby truck.

Why?

The man said the mountain had exploded and he was the sole survivor, Troyer said. He needed whatever he took to survive and put it in a backpack from inside the vehicle. The homeowner said the person’s whose truck was prowled works for the security firm.

The security officer came by and said one of the backpacks was his and had a loaded .38 Special inside, Troyer said. The alleged thief said he didn’t know the gun was in there.

The security officer told deputies he got home from work about 2 a.m. and didn’t lock his truck. When he went back outside to get his backpack from his rig, one of his neighbors flagged him down and told him to meet with the deputies.

The arrested man gave deputies a fake name, Troyer said, but pill bottles in one of his backpacks had his real name and birth date on them.

The 39-year-old, whose last known address was in Seattle, was booked into Pierce County Jail about 5:30 a.m. on suspicion of firearm theft, giving false information to deputies and vehicle prowling.

This story was originally published July 18, 2018 at 4:57 PM.