Woodinville, Wash. — The burglaries happened last September under the cover of darkness in and around this storage facility owned by Appian Construction. The burglars seemed to know what they were after. They broke into this key box then picked over what was here. They went for construction equipment worth tens of thousands of dollars.
"Obviously they picked the most expensive truck and the one with the small bobcat in the back." Nigel Jones said this was the biggest burglary in his nearly 30 years in business. "This particular one was a theft of a pretty large magnitude," he said.
An alert King County sheriff's deputy happened upon the men at about 3 in the morning as they stood near Jones' business, in the pouring rain. One suspect took off running. The other one, said the deputy, appeared scared. Then the deputy looked in the truck like this one with a bobcat on back. There were also tools and equipment from two other nearby businesses.
The man said he worked for Jones. "I looked in the car and did not recognize him," said Jones. "He did not work for me."
Jones said he got back everything the men stole in their early morning heist. "Of course, 3 o'clock in the morning," said Jones, with a laugh. "Nothing good happens after midnight my dad used to say."
The other victims were not so lucky. One of them told a KIRO7 reporter he is still missing things that were stolen.
The two suspects were charged. They are to be formally arraigned the day after Christmas.
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