SNOHOMISH – Something Shane Neal Pruitt of Snohomish didn’t observe Jan. 13 led to his downfall.
The trailer he allegedly hitched to his truck and hauled out of a Snohomish woman’s yard had only one wheel.
The axle on the left side of the trailer left a “convenient gouge in the roadway that didn’t require a Daniel Boone-type character to track,” deputy Snohomish County prosecutor Chris Dickinson said in court papers charging Pruitt, 26, with multiple counts of theft.
The trailer he allegedly tried to steal contained five off-road vehicles, and the owner was outraged when she saw Pruitt’s truck pulling it out of her yard. She called police and then hopped in her own vehicle to follow the gouge marks.
After a few blocks, she reportedly found her trailer, off-road vehicles and Pruitt’s truck abandoned at the side of the road.
Deputies responded and saw a police scanner tuned to the sheriff’s frequency in the truck. Pruitt was spotted nearby and arrested.
Dickinson alleges that Pruitt admitted stealing the trailer and off-road vehicles, claiming it was a spur-of-the-moment crime.
He later reportedly led police to a box trailer full of tools that was reported stolen Dec. 29, and to a third trailer carrying a personal watercraft stolen Jan. 11, Dickinson said. Both were taken from the Cathcart area.
Dickinson charged him with three counts of second-degree theft and two counts of first-degree theft. Pruitt will be summoned for arraignment July 13 in Superior Court, documents say.
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