A teenager is accused of driving a stolen truck on North Whidbey, trying to elude police and stealing a tip jar from a coffee stand on July 18, according to court documents.
A deputy with the Island County Sheriff’s Office responded to a report of a flat bed truck traveling erratically on Highway 20 and nearly causing a head-on collision at about 2:40 p.m. The deputy searched the area near the intersection with Hoffman Road but did not see the truck.
About 20 minutes later, an employee at Jet Java Coffee reported that a redheaded teenager in a work truck stopped at the stand and told the employee that he was fleeing from a crash and that he had been driving 80 mph for fun. The teenager also asked if the employee would buy weed for him, according to the deputy’s report.
Deputies continued the search of the area but could not find the truck.
About half an hour later, a Jet Java employee called again and said the truck had returned. The teenager allegedly threw objects at the window, hit the building, stole the tip jar and drove off, the report states.
This time the deputies saw the truck and tried to pull it over. The driver, however, refused to stop and continued north, causing other drivers to yield in order to avoid a collision. Traffic slowed to a crawl at the roundabout at Banta Road and the driver eventually pulled over.
Deputies pulled the boy, later identified as a 17-year-old Federal Way resident, out of the truck, but he resisted arrest, the report states. The deputies ran the truck’s license plate and found that it had been reported stolen from an Anacortes business.
The teenager appeared in Island County Superior Court July 19 and the judge found probable cause existed to believe he may have committed the crimes of possession of a stolen vehicle, theft in the third degree and failure to stop.