Personal Narrative: How A Stolen Car

On 3-31-2017 at about 0730 hrs I was westbound on Auburn Way S at the intersections with Dogwood ST SE, when I was alerted via my automatic license plate reader system to a possible stolen vehicle. The system altered to

WA/BAW3136, which was stopped at the intersection facing eastbound on Auburn Way

S. I advised dispatch of the plate and my location and dispatch confirmed that the vehicle was reported stolen through Olympia PD OCA 2017-01777. I turned my fully marked patrol vehicle around and followed the stolen vehicle as it went north on Dogwood ST SE. After following the vehicle for a short time, I stopped the vehicle at 3035 17th ST SE, which out incident.

Other Auburn PD Patrol units arrived in the area and a "high risk" stop was done on the

See Detective Ernst's follow up report for further information.

Dispatch stated that the vehicle had been confirmed as stolen through Olympia PD and provided a phone number for the owner of the vehicle, Nam Tran. I called the provided phone number and reached a male who identified himself as Nam. Nam spoke little English, but stated that he was in fact the owner of the vehicle and that he did not know Henry or Telles, and did not give them permission to be in possession of the vehicle. Nam provided verbal consent to search the vehicle. Upon searching the vehicle, I located a small black/silver key in the middle consul cup holder. The key had a black plastic tag on it. The tag was stamped with a "John Deere" logo, indicating that it was likely a key used for a lawn mower. I showed the key to Henry and she stated that the key I located was the key she used to start the vehicle.

Additionally, in the driver side door storage area, I located a white hard sunglass case. In the sunglass case, I located several pieces of