Police Beat: A stolen Jet Ski, a red-headed stranger and a woman jumping into traffic

Editor’s note: Compiled from reports to the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department.

Aug. 14: The signs of a stolen vehicle aren’t that hard for cops to see. A missing license plate is a common tell.

The sheriff’s deputy, in the midst of a routine traffic stop on Key Peninsula Highway NW, glanced toward the road as a white pickup drove past, pulling a trailer with a Jet Ski. The trailer had no plate and the deputy knew of a recent reported Jet Ski theft in the area.

The deputy followed the truck, caught up and pulled it over.

Asked about the Jet Ski, the driver said he’d just bought it from another guy. Didn’t have the bill of sale yet, but he was working on it.

The deputy looked at the watercraft, wrote down the registration number and ran a records check. A hit came back: the Jet Ski had been reported stolen four days earlier, as well as the trailer.

The deputy cuffed the driver and the passenger in the truck. He questioned them separately. Both men said they bought the Jet Ski for $400, though they had no plate or title for it or the trailer.

The deputy noticed that the registration sticker on the Jet Ski had been scraped off. The vehicle identification number for the trailer had been removed. Also, the passenger in the truck had an active arrest warrant.

Soon, the deputy tracked down the owner of the Jet Ski and the trailer and arranged to have both items returned. Both men were booked into the Pierce County Jail on suspicion of possessing a stolen motor vehicle.

Aug. 15: The red-headed stranger used the garden hose, rang the doorbell and hovered around the vehicles in the driveway.

The homeowner watched on a surveillance camera and called 911. A sheriff’s deputy drove to the 7100 block of Bentley Road East and took a look around.

At the same moment, another deputy stopped at an address nearby, responding to a report of a suspicious person. He found a red-headed man, 36, with no shirt, but didn’t have enough information to arrest him.

Within minutes, the deputies connected the dots and compared notes. They spoke to the first homeowner, who showed them the security footage.

On screen, the man was visible, drinking from a hose, washing himself and fiddling around with an industrial lift in the driveway. He pulled at it.

A look at the lift revealed damage. Aluminum grating had been removed. The ignition was torn out.

The deputies returned to the red-headed man and told him he was under arrest. For what, the man asked.

They told him he’d been seen vandalizing equipment at a home nearby. The man said he hadn’t. The deputies told him his actions were caught on video.

The man got mad. He demanded an attorney. The deputies stopped questioning him, stowed him in a patrol car and drove him to the first address. The homeowner spotted him.

“That’s him, that’s the guy,” the homeowner said.

Deputies booked the man into the Pierce County Jail on suspicion of malicious mischief.

Aug. 17: The dispatch call came in just after midnight. Reportedly, a nude woman was jumping in front of cars in the dark.

A sheriff’s deputy drove to the intersection of Pioneer Way East and Waller Road East, near Swan Creek Park.

The deputy found a parked pickup and heard a woman’s voice. The dispatch call had been right; the woman, 29, wore no clothes.

She rocked back and forth in the bed of the truck, telling the deputy to turn off the flashlight. The deputy tried to speak to her, but she showed no signs of understanding. The deputy suspected she was high on something.

Other deputies arrived and tried to help the woman get dressed. She wouldn’t. The next step was a call to an emergency medical team. The deputy arranged for an involuntary commitment.

The deputy spoke to the owner of the truck, who was standing nearby. The man said he was giving a woman a ride home from the casino when she started freaking out, taking off her clothes and threatening to kill people, so he called 911.

The woman was transported to a nearby hospital.

This story was originally published August 18, 2018 at 3:05 PM.