Pilot’s stolen log book recovered, but other items still missing

EVERETT — Steve Bish is thankful to have his flight log book back.

It and several pieces of flight equipment had been stolen March 18 from a Boeing Co. parking lot while he was at work.

The book was returned by a man and a woman who met with him in a Mukilteo supermarket parking lot. They told him she found it in a trash can, but provided neither their names nor address, Bish said.

Bish said he paid them $60 for his lost book, part of what he’d planned to be a $2,000 reward. That offer was included in a Wednesday newspaper story about his lost log book.

For now, after speaking with a Snohomish County sheriff’s deputy, Bish is hesitant to pay the rest.

Detectives are continuing to investigate the recent break-in of Bish’s GMC Sierra pickup, sheriff’s office spokeswoman Shari Ireton said.

Bish is eager to learn if deputies find more information about who’s responsible for the property crime. He said the woman reported finding the book during a time before it had been stolen. He said he also wondered why neither the man nor woman called him earlier because there was contact information in the book.

Someone broke into his 2006 GMC Sierra pickup between 6 a.m. and 3 p.m. March 18 when it was parked in a Boeing lot at the corner of 112th Street SW and 29th Avenue W. The thief stole two aviation bags that included headsets, a GPS device, a radio system, a collision avoidance device and cash.

The equipment can be replaced, he said.

It is his flight log book, documenting more than 190 hours piloting planes, that cannot. Log books provide a record and establish eligibility for additional certificates and ratings.

It also is a tangible reminder of what Bish has worked so hard toward after spending more than two decades in the Army, including two tours of duty in Iraq.

His pickup was locked and the truck’s alarm was on.

The thief reportedly used a shaved key and didn’t set off the alarm.

Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446; stevick@heraldnet.com.