The 4Runner is finally back!

Last night at 2:30 am the 4Runner was delivered!!! I wanted to get a better picture of the delivery truck but didn't want to bother putting my boots on and running outside so this is the best picture I could get from the porch. We hired a transport company and they commissioned a driver from Texas. He was just driving his own truck with a 5th wheel flat bed trailer with 3 vehicles total. Poor guy kept driving through the night to Colorado so he would be home to Texas this weekend for his girl's soccer game. He just got back from Iraq and didn't want to miss anymore of his kids events. So I didn't really mind getting woken up in the middle of the night because he was delayed 5 hours due to the snow storm.

If you have no idea why I'm even posting about the 4Runner...our beloved vehicle that I bought more than 12 years ago!...remember back to October when it was stolen out of our garage from our house in Woodinville, Washington just a few days after moving to Utah? The suspect was caught just a week after it was stolen but the police in Garfield County were keeping it for evidence, hence the lovely red evidence tape on every door jam that has been thoroughly adhering itself which is sure to be a major pain to remove.

So the story of the suspect and his trial is quite interesting. While in custody at Garfield County he claimed to be having a heart attack. Well the doctor said an MIR was in order and while in custody the county is then responsible for all medical bills. They didn't want to pay for this so released the guy and hoped he would show up for his court date. Turns out this is the 2nd time he has faked a heart attack while in custody. Anyway surprisingly he did show up for his court date but before the trail he made it back to King County (where Seattle is located) and was caught robbing a house in Carnation. He was armed so a SWAT team had to gas the house to get him out. Now King County will send him to prison so Garfield County won't know when they will get him back for a trial so they did a final sweep of the vehicle and released it after almost 5 months!!

The vehicle was not damaged but is extremely dirty. The inside is fine but we will get the whole truck detailed once we replace the battery which is now shot. To my surprise when it showed up last night I had to do a second take because the brush guard is gone! The suspect also removed the tail light guards for some reason. The poor old 4Runner looks so naked and plain without the guards. Oh well. We also got Jason's acoustic guitar back (stolen from the house) which surprisingly had no scratches. Maybe the suspect was taking good care of it for himself. The vehicle was also full of other stolen goods including jewelry, tools, cameras, cell phones, gun paraphernalia, camping and fishing supplies (probably what he was using during the week he had it), the guitar and other random stuff. The deputy said no police reports have been found matching the other stolen items so technically they belong to the suspect since they can't prove they are stolen.

We never received any followup info from Snohomish County (where we lived) about prosecuting this guy for breaking into our house. Our experience with the judicial system regarding the breaking and entering and auto theft has been disappointing. At least its all over and the guy is in prison and we have the 4Runner back!