TUMWATER, Wash. — Thurston County’s sheriff said a chase that began at a pot shop ended in a swamp early Monday morning.
Five teenage boys appeared before a Thurston County juvenile court administrator on burglary charges.
They’re accused of driving a stolen car into Tumwater’s Thunder Cannabis around 4 a.m. before getting in a chase with Thurston County deputies and Tumwater officers.
They drove through a fence and ended up in a retention pond near the Thunderbird Village senior community, said Thurston County Sheriff Derek Sanders.
The crash woke Arlene Cook up. She lives about 100 yards from where the car ended up in the water.
Cook was grateful for the police chasing after and arresting the suspected burglars. But she was still nervous the rest of the morning.
”I had an early morning appointment and I was afraid to go out into my garage and open the car because I thought somebody could be out there,” said Cook, “That kind of thing goes through your mind.”
Thunder Cannabis manager Chris Klatush spent the morning cleaning up broken glass and removing damaged door frames.
Detectives said before the teens backed the stolen car into the shop, they used it to push a concrete barrier out of the way.
”It’s crazy,” said store manager Chris Klatush.
The Chehalis Tribe owns the pot shop.
The tribe’s chairman, Dustin Klatush, Chris Klatush’s brother, said he hopes the burglary isn’t the start of a trend in Thurston County.
”It’s like a grab and go pretty much,” said Dustin Klatush, “It’s been going on a lot up north. Seems like it’s coming down this way.”
Sanders said his county saw several similar pot shop burglaries earlier in the year, but Monday’s incident was the first in “many months.”