Thurston County deputies recover ‘massive amount’ of stolen guns, vehicles, property

A suspicious circumstance call and reports of shots fired this week led Thurston County deputies to arrest a man in connection with what they called “massive amounts” of stolen property.

According to a news release from the Thurston County Sheriff’s Office, deputies arrested a 55-year-old Yelm man on Monday, Aug. 8 and booked him on suspicion of multiple felony charges related to the stolen property.

Police said other suspects have been identified and more arrests will happen soon.

The arrest comes after police received calls on Monday about a suspicious situation and possibly shots fired in the 14700 block of Regal Lane Southeast in Yelm. A freightliner service truck was stolen earlier that day in King County and was tracked to the Yelm address using the GPS system in the vehicle.

When deputies arrived on Regal Lane, they located the stolen truck. They received a warrant to search the property and found three other stolen vehicles, along with several illegal or stolen firearms and other stolen property.

Some of it stolen items were identified as being from a U-Haul that was stolen a month earlier from an active duty Coast Guard family staying at a Tumwater hotel. Most of the items were recovered and returned, according to the release.

Police are continuing to work on identifying other victims and returning stolen items as possible.

U-Haul of military family stolen in Tumwater and dumped near Yelm Wednesday morning