PORT TOWNSEND – Two people arrested in Jefferson County while they were towing a stolen boat from Olympia may have been innocent of theft and only doing an errand for man now in the county jail, said Sheriff Mike Brasfield, as the investigation broadens into what may be a boat-theft ring.
A 40-year-old Kitsap County man, who was in jail Friday on an unrelated charge of driving under the influence, is expected to be charged in Jefferson County with possession of stolen property and in Thurston County with theft, said Jefferson County Undersheriff Tim Perry.
Brasfield and Perry declined to identify him, citing the ongoing investigation.
After recovering a 34-foot boat owned by Steve Boone of Olympia – a 2005 Cobalt 343 speed boat valued at $200,000 – from a residence in rural Jefferson County on Thursday, deputies found a second stolen boat worth about $75,000 on the same property.
Investigators are looking at whether boats stolen from Everett, Bellingham and Tacoma might also be related.
The investigation “appears to be getting larger than just these two boats,” Perry said.
“We have a number of people who are being investigated.”
The Cobra was reported stolen from a repair facility in Olympia on Aug. 7.
Boone got a tip that his boat had been seen being towed on a trailer heading north on U.S. Highway 101 and chartered a plane to search for it on Thursday.
He spotted it being towed in the Quilcene area and called the Olympia Police Department, who notified the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office.
An off-duty Port Townsend police officer spotted the boat on state Highway 104 and caught up to it as it turned into a private driveway on Highway 104, 12 miles west of the Hood Canal Bridge.
Jefferson County Sheriff’s deputies, State Patrol troopers and a U.S. Forest Service officer joined the off-duty officer.
They took into custody a 49-year-old Kitsap County man who was towing the boat and a 52-year-old Kitsap County woman following behind in a different vehicle.
At the property where the two individuals pulled in, an aluminum boat with its serial number scratched off was found on a trailer.
The trailer still had a serial number, and upon checking, detectives learned the boat and trailer had been reported stolen from the Milton area.
The two suspects were brought to the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office and questioned.
Brasfield said that they two had apparently not knowingly stolen the boat.
They were moving it, upon request, for an acquaintance, he said, who turned out to be a man already booked in the county jail.
“They may be innocent bystanders,” Brasfield said.
Investigators think the boats were being stripped and many parts sold online, with the remainder being sold as scrap.
Brasfield said that the man in jail is also under investigation for the theft of the aluminum boat.
Perry declined to say if the owner of the property where the two stolen boats were found is being looked at for involvement in the crime because the case is under investigation.
