PORT ANGELES — It was a rude awakening for Joe Almaden.
A man, whose name has not been released, was being chased early Wednesday morning by deputies in two Clallam County sheriff’s patrol cars who said he had stolen $20 in gasoline.
The man drove into Almaden’s backyard the GMC pickup truck on Defrang Street east of Port Angeles looking for an escape route.
“I opened my eyeballs. I can see red, green and blue lights” after he was awakened by the loud truck at about 3:30 a.m., Almaden recalled Thursday.
To the 67-year-old resident’s surprise, the driver, who remains at large, drove into one of his sheds.
The driver then reversed the GMC truck into another shed, but not before tearing down Almaden’s chain-link fence and leaving several tire tracks in his backyard.
From there, the man drove into Almaden’s recreational vehicle.
“I’m going, ‘What the hell?’” Almaden said as he recalled stepping outside to see what was happening.
“There was no place else to go,” he added. “He was pretty desperate.”
But the driver found an escape route at the edge of the property, where he dragged a portion of the fence alongside a neighbor’s building that led to a nearby field.
The driver found his way to Vinup Street and ditched the vehicle, which by then had a flat tire and a fair amount of damage, deputies said.
The driver fled the scene through a nearby yard, deputies said.
The deputies interviewed three women who were in the truck as passengers.
Sgt. John Hollis said one of the passengers gave him the name of the driver, but Hollis has not confirmed his identity.
Pending that identification, his name is being withheld, Hollis said.
Hollis, who was part of the pursuit, said he was surprised by the driver’s actions.
“If it’s who I think it is, the worst that would have happened is I write him a citation for theft,” he said.
Almaden said he wasn’t sure how much property damage was caused.
Hollis said the deputies didn’t try to box the driver in at Almaden’s home because Hollis suspected the driver would have used his much larger vehicle to ram through them.
“I’m not going to have a crash derby here with police cars,” Hollis said.
Chief Criminal Deputy Ron Cameron said the chase started at Bayview Avenue and U.S. Highway 101 after the two deputies spotted the truck, which 20 minutes before had been reported for the alleged gas theft.
They pursued the truck down Bayview Avenue to Myrtle Street and then Larch Avenue before it turned onto Defrang Street, Cameron said.
A Port Angeles police K-9 dog and its handler and trained trackers were used to no avail.
Anyone with information on the driver’s whereabouts can phone the Sheriff’s Office at 360-417-2471.
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.