MOUNTLAKE TERRACE — A traffic stop for an illegal lane change led to the discovery of drugs, stolen driver’s licenses and a homemade explosive, Mountlake Terrace police said Monday, April 16.
Two men are behind bars and detectives are sorting through a mountain of evidence to determine how many of the IDs are stolen or fake.
An officer stopped a 34-year-old Stanwood man the night of Friday, April 13, for illegally driving in a turn lane, Mountlake Terrace police Sgt. Doug Hansen said.
The man didn’t have a driver’s license and gave the officer a fake name. The officer determined the man had a suspended driver’s license because he hadn’t paid child support, Hansen said.
The officer asked the driver and passenger, a 25-year-old Everett man, to get out of the car.
The officer searched the car and reportedly found methamphetamine and pipes. Digging deeper, the officer found property reported stolen during a car prowl in Bellevue last week and during a separate burglary in Stanwood, Hansen said.
The passenger apparently already had managed to forge a fake identity with his picture on the Stanwood theft victim’s driver’s license, Hansen said.
Police searched a motel room on Highway 99 where the men had been staying.
Inside, they found several computers, laminating supplies and other materials to counterfeit checks and driver’s licenses. They also found merchandise that allegedly had been bought using stolen credit cards and checks, backed up by bogus IDs, Hansen said.
Investigators also found a cardboard cylinder with a fuse sticking out of it. The device was in the bathtub. Detectives called out the regional bomb squad to remove the device.
“It looked like a gigantic firework and was made to look like an explosive device,” Hansen said. “We don’t have any idea what it was used for.”
It is unclear how many ID theft victims there may be, he said.
“We have a small grocery bag full of paperwork,” Hansen said.
The two men were booked into the Snohomish County Jail for investigation of possession of stolen property and drugs.
Diana Hefley is a reporter for the Herald in Everett.
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