An uproar on a local Facebook page over a trampoline that went missing last week resulted in the trampoline being tracked down when the alleged thief caught wind of the hubbub and called deputies to say he took it, but he did so because he thought it was scrap metal and was being discarded.
Interest in the theft of the trampoline, which had been disassembled and left in a yard of a house that was being vacated, started Sunday when a neighbor of the residence posted surveillance images of the man’s truck to the Port Orchard Facebook page.
The post amounted to a South Kitsap all points bulletin, and the comments section filled with people claiming they knew the truck’s past owners, real time reports of its location but also that the Kitsap Sheriff’s Office was not responding promptly or taking the missing trampoline seriously.
One person wrote that because of cases like this they feel they are being forced to take the law into their own hands.
“When we do we are the wrong doers and the ones who get Arrested. Oh Well, I will protect my Family and Property at all costs. You cannot count on the Police.”
The Facebook furor eventually came to the attention of the suspect.
“He then realized he had taken the wrong trampoline,” a deputy wrote. The man called the Sheriff’s Office Monday morning and said he had the trampoline and would return it.
The suspect told the deputy that after picking up the disassembled trampoline on Thursday, he stopped by a nearby duplex that was under construction and was given a used baseboard heater. Deputies confirmed that he had permission to take that scrap metal.
At the request of the owner of the trampoline, a report was forwarded to prosecutors for review for possible charges of third-degree theft.
