EVERETT — Two men towing a stolen excavator from Arlington caused two hit and run crashes Sunday, according to police.
Apparently they didn’t count on a tracking device leading police right to them, about 25 miles away in Everett.
Around 6 p.m. Sunday, an Arlington police officer reportedly notified an Everett cop that a Kubota excavator was missing from the city. The excavator’s tracker had reportedly “pinged” near a south Everett apartment building in the 11100 block of Evergreen Way. The Arlington officer sent photos of the excavator inside a trailer, being towed by a lifted Ford truck, a police report says.
Everett police found two men, aged 27 and 29, in a parking lot standing next to the truck and trailer. As officers confronted them, the two men “frantically” got into the truck and drove away, according to police.
“Go! Go! Go!” the officer reportedly heard one of the men saying, “with angst in his voice.”
The 27-year-old man reportedly backed the trailer into shrubs and an enclosure around a dumpster, causing minor property damage.
The truck fled north on Evergreen Way, according to the police report.
Shortly after, the two men crashed into another vehicle less than a mile away, in the 10100 block of Evergreen, police said. The two men tried to flee again, but police took them into custody.
The other driver reportedly suffered minor injuries.
The suspects were taken to Providence Regional Medical Center Everett for an evaluation and then booked into Snohomish County Jail. Police arrested the pair for investigation of possession of stolen property, a felony.
The alleged driver, of Buckley, faces two misdemeanor charges of hit and run. He was also suspected of obstructing a law enforcement officer and possession of a stolen firearm, but prosecutors declined to seek probable cause for those counts.
In the wreckage of the truck, investigators found a rifle case containing a .22-caliber AR-style rifle that had been reported stolen from Fife, nearly 60 miles south of Everett.
Millet set bail for the driver at $2,500 and for the passenger, $5,000. Both bailed out of jail, records indicate.
The stolen excavator had an estimated value of $60,000 to $70,000, according to police. It was unclear where in Arlington the excavator was taken from.
An Arlington police spokesperson did not respond to a Herald reporter’s phone calls Tuesday.
Maya Tizon: 425-339-3434; maya.tizon@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @mayatizon.
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