By Tim Clifford

The list of charges that one Burien criminal may soon face seems unfathomable given that they all spring from one simple traffic stop.

On Jan.5 at around 8 p.m. a deputy with the King County Sheriff’s Department noticed a vehicle being driven erratically and began following it in order to make a traffic stop. The driver, a 29-year-old man, finally decided to stop the car in the driveway of his home on the 12000 block of 1 Ave. S. The suspect was promptly arrested after the deputy ran his back license plate through the system and discovered it was stolen.

After running a check of the suspect’s name a warrant for arrest also came up due to a driving offense.

While investigating inside the car the deputy discovered that the vehicle itself had been reported as stolen out of Tukwila. During a quick sweep through the car a handgun was recovered which had been reported as having been stolen in a burglary earlier that day at a residence in Auburn.

Next, while inspecting the front of the vehicle the deputy discovered another different license plate which also had been reported as stolen.

At this point the officer decided that since there were other vehicles parked in the suspect’s yard to run a check on all vehicles that were present. This resulted in the discovery of a second stolen vehicle from Puyallup and stolen Harley-Davidson motorcycle out of Seattle, both parked on the suspect’s property.

The suspect was taken into the King County Jail and booked for possession of a stolen vehicle and possession of a stolen firearm. Rest assured though, more charges will be coming soon.

“I spoke with the detective this morning about this and they are going through the suspect’s car right now because they are pretty sure they will find much more stolen property there,” explained Sergeant D.B. Gates of the investigation.

The Sheriff’s department summed up the lesson to be learned here best in their press release:

If there is a moral to the above story it may be that it’s probably prudent to be on your best driving behavior when driving around in a stolen vehicle. And that making it back to home base doesn’t make you “safe”.