Thurston County deputies use K9, drones to capture a car theft suspect who was hiding in a tree
By: A police chase in Olympia ended with a car theft suspect hanging from a tree branch over a 200-foot cliff.
All of this started on Christmas Day when police in Olympia received reports of a car theft. They conducted a foot chase, but the suspect got away. A day later, officers received another report of a stolen car on the West Side.
The stolen car was spotted by an officer, who alerted the Thurston County Sheriff's Office. Those deputies then attempted a traffic stop. They say this is when the suspect failed to stop and a chase began.
Eventually, the driver pulled off Marvin Road exit and encountered a dead end road. He then got out of the car and fled into a marsh area, according to Sheriff Sanders with TCSO.
From this point, the office deployed several resources to make an arrest. This included the use of an infrared drone and a K9 team wading through the marshland.
Deputies say they found the suspect 50 feet up in a tree hanging over a cliff that dropped 200 feet down to the water.
When the suspect came down, law enforcement compared a picture of the suspect from the Christmas Day theft and determined it was the same suspect in this late-night theft.
TCSO says the man was booked on probable cause of auto theft and eluding police, and announced a judge set bail at $75,000.