Pierce County high-speed chase ended in crash — then driver stole his car back
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- A 22-year-old man led a Washington State Patrol trooper on a high-speed chase in Sumner.
- The Washington State Patrol impounded the yellow Chevrolet and took it to Hometown Towing.
- He allegedly stole the impounded Corvette from the tow yard on the morning of Jan. 30.
A 22-year-old man allegedly led state troopers on a high-speed chase in Sumner — and then broke into a South Prairie towing yard less than a month later to steal his car back.
According to court documents, the man is facing charges of second-degree burglary, theft of a motor vehicle and attempting to elude a pursuing police vehicle. He is being held at Pierce County Jail.
On top of that, the King County Sheriff’s Office has warrants on the man for a hit and run and attempting to elude a pursuing police vehicle, according to court documents. The Washington State Department of Corrections also has him on a detainer, jail records show.
The high-speed chase
State trooper Trevor Loos was driving along state Route 410 on Jan. 4 when it caught his eye: a yellow Chevrolet Corvette driving east with no rear license plate.
In a police report, Loos said it was about 10:37 a.m., near milepost 9 in Sumner, when he activated his emergency lights so he could pull the man over.
Then, things escalated.
“The Chevrolet accelerated and changed lanes into the left lane, traveling at a high rate of speed passing two vehicles that were in the right lane,” the documents say. “I notified communications that I was in pursuit.”
The driver exited at Valley Avenue East, documents said, and sped through the intersection to Valley Avenue. He then went northbound on Valley Avenue East, crossing the state Route 410 overpass.
“[He] crossed double yellow lines, center lines and drove against traffic in the southbound lane to pass vehicles, which were stopped at a traffic signal in the northbound lanes,” the documents said.
Loos used the push bars on his car to bring the Chevrolet to a stop, the documents said, just as the driver turned left through the intersection and was about to drive onto westbound state Route 410.
After Loos pushed the Chevrolet, both cars landed on the embankment of the westbound state Route 410 interchange ramp from Valley Avenue East, the documents said.
When Loos approached the vehicle, he ordered the driver to get out, the documents said. The driver couldn’t get out through the driver’s side door, so he climbed out of the driver’s side window. There was one passenger in the car, who also exited the car when Loos ordered them to.
“[He] asked why I hit him and advised he did not realize I was trying to stop him,” documents said.
Loos later discovered the vehicle was registered in Nevada, documents say, and the man did not have a driver’s license. The driver told Loos he had bought the car in Oregon and had a temporary trip permit in the glovebox.
“The vehicle fled from the Pierce County Sheriff’s Office the previous night. [The driver] advised he rented the vehicle out to people and he was not driving it last night,” Loos wrote in the documents. “I transported [him] into the Pierce County Jail.”
The man bailed out on Jan. 7, according to court records.
According to the documents, Washington State Patrol impounded the Corvette and took it to Hometown Towing and Recovery in South Prairie.
The comeback heist
Later that month, Pierce County Sheriff’s Office deputy Matthew Smith went to Hometown Towing and Recovery to respond to a call about a burglary.
The call came in on Jan. 30 at about 8:44 a.m., Smith wrote in court documents said. When he arrived, the owner of the towing company said a man had entered the property at about 2:46 a.m. and stolen the yellow Corvette.
“Surveillance footage from a neighboring business showed a white or light-colored Tesla dropping off a suspect who then ran toward the tow yard,” the documents say. “Two locks securing the gates had been cut, and tire tracks indicated the Corvette’s exit from the property.”
The owner told Smith he had received calls from the driver, the driver’s brother, the driver’s sister and the driver’s friend during the 26 days the car was at the tow yard. On Jan. 15, the driver arrived at Hometown Towing and Recovery to collect two jackets from the vehicle, the documents say.
On Jan. 26, the driver’s sister allegedly called the owner and asked why the driver couldn’t pick up his car. The owner told the sister the driver could pick up the car once he had paid $2,623, court records show.
“[The owner] reported that he never received the vehicle’s keys and believed they might have been inside the car,” the documents said. “A Department of Licensing check revealed no current registered or legal owner, and the vehicle had no plates.”
Smith said he used a search warrant to access the driver’s phone records, which indicated him being in the area of Hometown Towing nine times between Jan. 15 and Jan. 30.
The King County Sheriff’s Office later found the stolen Corvette at 3:30 a.m. at East Lake Morton Drive Southeast in Kent, court documents said.
Prosecutors filed the charges for second-degree burglary and theft of a motor vehicle in May, according to court documents.
