Mill Creek police pluck suspect from pond

Published 11:04 pm Tuesday, March 23, 2010

MILL CREEK — A suspected shoplifter was lucky police were on his trail early Monday when he got stuck in a pond.

Reports of stolen beer and a hit-and-run accident in the parking lot led officers to a Shell gas station in the 3400 block of 132nd Street SE just after 1 a.m., Mill Creek police detective Ian Durkee said.

The officers stopped a sport utility vehicle in the area. When a young man got out of the vehicle and ran, the officers tracked him to a large pond surrounded by thorns and brambles. The man tangled himself in the brush, fell into the pond and had trouble keeping his head above water, Durkee said.

Officers helped the man get out before arresting him. The gas station clerk identified him and the other man from the SUV as the pair who stole beer.