A security guard's late-night call sent Pierce County deputies racing to a Puyallup farm before dawn on Nov. 4, where they found a 24-year-old man sitting behind the wheel of a semi-truck with the engine running, turning the steering wheel as if trying to drive it away. He never got the rig out of the lot.
Deputies arrived to find the man still inside the cab, engine started, working the steering wheel, according to KIRO 7. Pierce County Sheriff's Office deputies had responded to the farm after a security guard witnessed the attempted theft in progress, according to MyNorthwest.com. The suspect was unable to leave the parking lot in the semi-truck, per that same report.
Deputies believed the man was under the influence of narcotics, according to the Pierce County Sheriff's Office. The sheriff's office said he had been smoking something inside the cab before deputies arrived, and that drug paraphernalia was found among his belongings, the station reports.
Resistance Met With a Taser
Rather than comply, the suspect refused repeated commands from deputies, according to MyNorthwest.com. When he kept resisting as deputies tried to remove him from the cab, they deployed a taser to take him into custody, per the same account.
He was ultimately arrested on suspicion of attempted motor vehicle theft and resisting arrest, the station notes. The Pierce County Sheriff's Office said an attempted semi-truck theft could have caused serious damage and put lives at risk, according to MyNorthwest.com, which reported the sheriff's office announced the incident on Friday.
A String of Pierce County Truck and Vehicle Theft Attempts
A MyNorthwest report published April 8, 2024, described Puyallup homeowner Eric Smith confronting someone trying to steal his truck from his driveway; the person fled to a getaway car, according to MyNorthwest.com. Smith caught the confrontation on his Ring surveillance camera, the outlet reported. A juvenile was separately arrested in Federal Way in connection with an attempted vehicle theft over that same weekend, per the report.
