With the heat of law enforcement on, some thieves recently decided to get out of the frying pan by returning a stolen welding machine worth $5,000 to its owner.

On the morning of Nov. 27, Nichols Brother Boat Builder owner Matt Nichols stepped outside his home to go to work and almost tripped over the welding machine, which had been dropped off at his house after disappearing from his Freeland shipyard a month earlier.

The compact machine, which was designed for welding the aluminum plating that Nichols Brothers uses to build the majority of its boats, showed up packed in a cardboard box that had once held another type of tool.

Both Nichols and Island County Sheriff Mike Hawley said the welder had likely been stolen by someone in the illegal drug industry. Hawley said he believes a recent spate of drug raids and investigations by his department may have scared the thieves into returning their loot. However it happened, said Nichols, it was a happy ending to get the welder back undamaged.

“Somebody thought this must be an evil thing,” he joked.

Nichols said the welder was stolen from his shipyard in October, taken from inside a locked fence at Nichols Brothers. He said he has an idea of who may have taken the welder and that the thieves seemed to be quite familiar with his business.

“If you have dishonest people, there’s not much you can do,” he said.

Nichols said the return of the welder is an indication of the job being done by the sheriff’s office. He said he is supportive of the work done by the agency.