Backpack With 'Bad Things Inside' Confiscated After Pair Hides In Pierce Co. Home

SPANAWAY, WA – A backpack, reportedly stuffed with a stolen gun, ammunition, cash and methamphetamine was seized this week by deputies after chasing a wanted, 30-year-old felon, who allegedly, with a female companion, tried stowing away in a friend's home in Spanaway before his arrest, according to law enforcement.

Pierce County Sheriff's deputies with the gang unit, on patrol Wednesday afternoon near the Roy Y transit station, spotted a white Acura allegedly recklessly passing vehicles at more than 65 mph and heading south on Mountain Highway using the center turn lane. The car cut through a mechanic-shop parking lot, sped north onto 8th Avenue, passing cars and a school bus in the oncoming lane, ran a stop sign and sped over a hill west on 186th Street.

"Deputies lost sight of the Acura, (but) several pedestrians along the roadway pointed down 12th Avenue in the direction the vehicle had fled (thank you!)" the department said.

Deputies found the Acura in a home's yard on the 18500 block of 12th Avenue and reportedly saw a man, carrying a black backpack, and a woman run from the car and through the front door of the home, the agency said. As one deputy covered the back of the house, another went to the front door, reporting that through the windows, adults and "small children" were seen inside, but none appearing to be the couple who ran from the Acura.

A man who answered the deputy's knock on the front door denied anyone ran inside the house, adding that "he didn't know what the deputies were talking about," the department said. An elderly woman, also in the residence, reportedly told the officer who asked if anyone ran into the home or if there were a possibility burglars were inside, answered that she "hated burglars."

The back-up deputy stationed in the backyard, meanwhile, reported that the male suspect opened an upstairs window and appeared to contemplate jumping out. The female suspect then walked down the stairs, identified herself and was taken into custody, the sheriff's office said.

The male suspect also then appeared at the top of the stairs, was ordered to come down, walked down halfway before stopping and then began to slowly back up the stairs, deputies said, adding that he paused before complying and getting down on his knees.

"The suspect screamed at the deputies about why he was getting arrested and what his rights were as he was being placed into handcuffs," the agency said.

The man, who initially answered the door, reportedly told deputies he was burying a dead fish in his backyard when the male suspect, whom he knew, and the woman arrived at his home asking if they could go upstairs into a bedroom.

"The man apologized to the deputies for not initially being honest, and told them that he saw the male suspect hide a backpack in the upstairs bedroom and that he was afraid it may have 'bad things' inside," according to the sheriff's office.

Deputies said they found the suspect's backpack behind a bedroom desk in the bedroom and inside was a loaded Smith & Wesson semiautomatic handgun reported stolen three weeks earlier from a vehicle in the Frederickson area.

The backpack also purportedly contained an assault rifle magazine, various ammunition, 31.15 grams of methamphetamine, $3,028 in cash and a digital scale with meth residue, plus a man's deodorant and shaving cream.

The male suspect was arrested for suspicion of unlawful possession of a firearm in the second degree, unlawful possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute, attempting to elude pursuing police vehicle, and a felony warrant for violating probation, according to the sheriff's office.

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--Images via Pierce Co. Sheriff