By KARL SCHWEIZER
Herald Writer
EVERETT — Note to criminals: If you steal a car, don’t tell the owner where you plan to go.
This actually happened Friday evening, leading to the rather speedy recovery of a stolen Chevrolet Blazer.
Owner Licia Dippary said she had stopped at a Chevron station to buy gas when she was approached by a man carrying a case of beer. He asked for a ride to the Riverside neighborhood of Everett and gave a detailed description of where he wanted to go. Dippary agreed, but the man drove off in her Blazer while she was inside paying for the gas.
She filed a report with the police, then set off to look for her vehicle with husband Sonny Dippary and friend Jason Palmer and Palmer’s wife.
Thanks to the thief’s helpful instructions, the group found the Blazer parked in an alley near 16th and Walnut streets, about three blocks north of the Riverside neighborhood.
"We hadn’t even been looking 15 minutes and my husband said, ‘That’s the car!’" Dippary said.
An Everett police officer arrived in time to see two men attempting to leave in the Blazer. The officer pulled one man from the car, but the other stepped on the gas and ran over his friend’s foot, said Sgt. Kenneth Dorn.
Palmer saw it all.
"The officer got the driver out. He was fighting with the officer. The guy in the passenger seat slams on the gas and runs the driver over!" Palmer said.
Palmer and Sonny Dippary sat on the captured suspect while the other sped away, police officer in pursuit.
Other officers spotted the Blazer and chased it to the 1600 block of Baker Avenue, where the driver drove through a fence and across someone’s front yard before being arrested, Dorn said.
The Dipparys recovered their vehicle along with an open case of Zima that was not theirs. However, some personal papers were missing.
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