SEQUIM — A stolen construction trailer was returned to its owners early Tuesday morning — nine days after it disappeared — but the suspected thief, who escaped from police custody, was still on the loose.
Clallam County sheriff’s deputies and Sequim police officers received a tip that led them to the 3000 block of Old Olympic Highway, where they found the trailer belonging to Sequim’s Parry Construction Co., Sequim Police information officer Maris Turner said Tuesday.
The officers phoned Frank Parry, who owns the company with his parents, Nick and Sally Parry. Frank picked up the trailer — which Sally Parry estimated was worth about $5,500 — and which had been disguised with a rushed paint job, Nick Parry said.
Last Friday night, police arrested Chris Ahlstadt, 48, of Port Angeles, in connection with the trailer theft that occurred during the weekend of Nov. 14.
When officers found him at his home on North Barr Road, they also found a marijuana-growing operation and a small amount of methamphetamine.
Then, though he had been handcuffed and held inside a sheriff’s department patrol car, Ahlstadt kicked through a side window at about 5 p.m. and got out and away, Turner said.
A Coast Guard helicopter, a police tracking dog and agents from the Sheriff’s Office and Sequim Police searched into the night, but did not find him.
Pursuing leads
Clallam County Undersheriff Ron Peregrin said Tuesday that his department is “aggressively pursuing several leads” on Ahlstadt’s whereabouts.
“This is not the first time a window has been broken out of a police car, and it won’t be the last,” he added. “In a highly charged event, that kind of thing happens.”
It’s a reminder that “the police are human . . . We are prone to failure, but we look to correct our mistakes. And now we are focused on bringing [Ahlstadt] back into custody.”
In addition to the disappearance of the Parry company equipment, the Sequim area has seen a rash of thefts from construction sites in recent weeks, according to Ron Cameron, chief criminal deputy at the Sheriff’s Office.
Some of those stolen goods were recovered after police served a search warrant last week on Cedar Bend Lane, where Ahlstadt had been working.
The Sheriff’s Office is investigating those thefts.
Meantime, the Parrys plan to redecorate their trailer, or job shack, as they call it.
“We’re going to paint it a more conspicuous color,” Nick Parry said.
The 1993 tan Northwest Customs closed-box trailer was tan. The thief apparently painted it off-white. The Parrys may go with barn-red.
The trailer was parked at the Willow Creek Manor construction site in eastern Sequim, and contained a load of tools and other items, including the guitar Frank Parry liked to play on his lunch break, which is still missing.
“We’re really pleased with how hard the Sequim cops and the Sheriff’s Department worked on this,” Nick Parry said.
“There was one police officer who we knew went to work Friday at 5 a.m., and we saw him at 9 p.m. that night at the crime scene.”
That officer was Sequim’s Grant Dennis, who Parry said worked alongside Sequim Sgt. Don Reidel. Parry emphasized, however, that several officers and deputies persevered, until much of his family’s property had been recovered.
Wanted
Ahlstadt is now wanted for first-degree malicious mischief, third-degree theft, possession of methamphetamine, first-degree possession of stolen property, trafficking in stolen property, manufacturing of marijuana and third-degree escape.
Ahlstadt is 6 feet 4 inches tall, weighs 240 pounds and has brown hair and green eyes.
Turner said he has been known to drive a green Chevrolet 1-ton pickup truck with a diamond-plate tool box across the body, a landscaping placard on the side and Washington license plates A56395X.
He may also drive a blue 2008 Toyota Prius with Washington license plates 094 XZE.
Police consider him dangerous and advise anyone who sees him to phone 9-1-1. Anyone with other information about Ahlstadt is asked to contact the Sequim police at 360-683-7227.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
