A 26-year-old Washington man was arrested for allegedly stealing four used tires from Tire Choice Auto Service Centers, 85 Hilltop Village Center Drive, in Eureka. The tires were valued at $200, Eureka Police reported.
Officers were called at about 2:30 p.m. Dec. 3 after the used tires were taken from a container that gets picked up once a week by an outside contractor. The manager told the officer two men came to the business at about 2:20 p.m. in a black 2006 Dodge Charger, and one of the men got out of the car and started asking the manager about tire prices while the driver backed up to the storage container, the report said.
The driver then allegedly got out of the Charger and put four tires in the car’s trunk. The other man then got into the car, and they drove away, Eureka Police reported.
The manger provided officers with a license plate number from the Charger, and using traffic cameras, police saw the car traveling on Fifth Street near Central Avenue at 2:10 p.m. and 2:25 p.m. the day of the theft, the report said.
The manager called police again on Dec. 4 and told them a woman had called the auto repair shop and identified the man who allegedly took the tires. Based on the woman’s description, the manager identified a potential suspect from a photo lineup, Eureka Police said.
The suspect was found in Washington, and he agreed to come to the Eureka Police Station. When he arrived at about 4 p.m. Dec. 4, he allegedly said he had not been to Eureka for months, did not know where Tire Choice was and didn’t know why the woman would claim he took the tires, the report said.
The suspect also said he didn’t know the passenger in the car seen the day the tires were stolen. Police showed him a picture of the man talking to the manager, and he allegedly said he couldn’t identify the man, according to the report.
When investigators told the suspect a woman called the auto shop and said she knew the man seen in the photo talking to the manager, the suspect became upset. In addition, the suspect allegedly refused to fill out a statement, saying he does not write well, Eureka Police reported.
The man was booked and issued a summons to appear in Municipal Court, Lt. Michael Werges said.
As of Dec. 16, the tires had not been recovered, and the passenger in the car at the time of the alleged theft had not been identified.