MOUNTLAKE TERRACE — A teenage boy who stole a flag from the city’s water tower was using it as a bedsheet, police say.
“That’s what he was sleeping on, our American flag,” Mountlake Terrace Sgt. Pete Caw said.
A photograph led police to the boy, 17, Caw said. The teenager was arrested March 1 on suspicion of second-degree burglary.
As police investigated allegations that the boy posted compromising photos of his girlfriend on the Internet, they noticed the large flag in the background, Caw said.
The flag is about 12 feet wide by 15 feet long and was stolen from the top of the city’s 150-foot water tank in October, city public works director Larry Waters said.
“That was darn good detective work,” he said. “I think it was pretty impressive they noticed that flag.”
Getting to the flag required getting around a chain-link fence with barbed wire and a locked gate.
Waters suspects the boy walked across a support structure and jumped onto the water tower ladder.
The tower is a well-known city landmark visible from I-5. The city had since replaced the flag, Waters said.
The city increased security at the water tower after several break-ins there, Waters said. Safety gear worth $1,000 was stolen, he said. A contractor working there also had more than $1,000 in equipment stolen.
The city’s tank holds 2.5 million gallons of water and is the main location for storage before the water is used in the city, Waters said.
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