Some of you may have heard that the Red Rooster, as we affectionately call my snowmobile, disappeared from the back of my truck in the View Ridge neighborhood of Seattle right before the Patrol Race on March 16.
So imagine my surprise when I received a call from the Seattle Police dispatch yesterday informing me that my "stolen vehicle" would be available for pickup at Lincoln Towing. I asked if there was any back story on what happened. She said it was found in the water off the boat launch at Magnusen, and as a matter of fact, they were loading it up on the tow truck at Magnusen and I could go down and talk with the officers if I headed down immediately.
Elena and I hopped in my truck and drove down to find the Rooster sitting on a tow truck, a big police boat tied up to the dock and officers Novak and Daly writing up a report.
They told me that a witness had seen some people show up in two trucks last Thursday around 7:00 pm (in daylight), unload the snowmobile and drive it off the dock into the water amongst other boaters who were pulling their boats out of the water at the end of the day.
Harbor patrol came on Monday with their police boat, used sonar to find it and had a diver attach a rope to it and towed it back to the launch. It was 120' out, in 12' of water. They were able to identify the VIN number and contacted me (the snowmobile is licensed).
It's pretty beat up and has clearly been boondocking in the mountains before the season ended, but it's drying out in my garage now, and I'm pretty sure it can be resuscitated.
The tow truck drivers slid it into my truck and the police hopped into their boat to respond to another call. Just then, a couple walking by recognized it and had witnessed the event last Thursday. Their story is where we got most of the details described above (we updated the police report).
You may recall that I had originally suspected Nigel, Jordan or Jim as possible culprits. Last night, Nigel indicated that the new information supports the Jordan theory. However after listening to many of Jim's crazy stories, I don't think he's ruled out yet. And we've all seen Nigel drive his ski doo across the pond in the slush cup a few years ago, so he's not ruled out either. In any case, all three probably would have gotten closer to Kirkland than whoever these yahoos who stole it did.
All I can say is that for the stories alone, we are sure getting our money's worth out of the Rooster!
Possible rename to "Sockeye"?
