SEQUIM — Public property stored by the Sequim Police Department was taken by employees for their personal use, including two sirens sold on eBay for $115 each.
The property was taken nearly four months ago.
Most has been returned, said Lt. Sheri Crain in an interview with the Peninsula Daily News, and an investigation is continuing.
“I was told it was junk,” said reserve police officer Jim Whitaker, a former full-time Sequim police officer and now a firefighter-EMT with Sequim Fire District No. 3.
Whitaker, one of those who took property from a storage facility on Sept. 26, declined to say who had told him it was junk.
He said he took police radios and light bars that he later returned.
He also took two metal sirens that he sold on eBay.
“Half of it was thrown in the back of a truck,” he said.
“It was on its way to the garbage. I wasn’t happy they were throwing it away.
“What was I supposed to do?”
Other items taken included found property such as old bicycles, old patrol car equipment and long-term, now useless, evidence, said Crain, who is the acting department supervisor while Police Chief Bob Spinks is on medical leave until February.
There is also an issue about whether an attempt was made to declare a 1992 Acura Vigor as “junk.”
Cain said she could not put a value on the items taken and refused to give a list of those items.
The property was taken at the end of September while police and Sequim public works personnel moved items from the agency’s rented Third Street storage facility to a new site at Carrie Blake Park and tore down partitions the city had erected as a renter on Third Street.
All but two metal sirens sold on eBay for $115 each were returned, Crain said.
She said she is almost finished conducting an internal investigation of the removal of the items.
Crain said she wants Spinks to decide if disciplinary action should be taken.
She said he could terminate one or more employees, though “that may be too strong a statement in this case.”
Crain would not say who was present at the storage facility on Sept. 26.
She also would not say who she has interviewed for her investigation, which she said was sparked “when someone came to me and said this needs to be looked at.”
Crain would not identify that person.
“I can’t tell you certain things,” she said, because the incident is still under investigation.
“The officers have been fully forthcoming and honest.”
She would not comment on whether she has taken statements from any public works employees.
Acting Public Works Director Bill Bullock did not return a call for comment.
It might not have been against the law for the employees to have taken the public property, Crain said.
“The circumstances and information that we have at this time, on its face, do not appear to have any criminal activity involved in it,” said Crain.
“This appears to be procedural and policy violations,” she said.
As such, it’s turned into a personnel matter that does not warrant immediate attention, she said.
“This is not an emergent situation,” she said.
On Jan. 8, a week after Peninsula Daily News began conducting interviews with city employees, Crain issued a written statement saying that the incident was being reviewed as “an active, under investigation, personnel matter.”
“It has been determined that the employees involved believed the items were destined to be destroyed and of no value to the department, and the items were later returned to the department,” the statement said.
The majority of interviews have been completed, she said last week.
“We have questions that we may want to continue to have answered,” she added.
Crain said no decision had been made on whether Whitaker, who she did not identify, would be asked to give the $230 from the eBay sales to the city.
There was no discrepancy between the news release saying “the items were later returned” and Whitaker selling two of those items, Crain said.
“You can’t return something that’s been sold,” she said.
About five days after taking the items, Whitaker was asked to give a written statement to the department regarding the incident.
He said that no police department official has interviewed him.
Vehicles seized by police as part of an arrest were also determined to be junk vehicles and were determined to be worthless, according to the department’s statement.
Whether a seized 1992 Acura Vigor with 168,000 miles on the odometer may have been given away as “junk” during the disposal of equipment and later returned is still under review, Crain said.
“I’m not going to comment on the specifics of that. All that is still under investigation.”
An Acura Vigor with that mileage has a suggested retail price of about $3,500, according to Kelley Blue Book.
City Code Enforcement Officer Lisa Hopper said in an interview that Sequim Police Detective Sgt. Sean Madison “asked me to declare the cars junk,” including the Acura.
“I told him it wasn’t junk,” said Hopper, who said that, as of two weeks ago, she had not been interviewed nor been asked to give a written statement as part of Crain’s investigation.
The only damage to the vehicle body, parked at the city shop as of two weeks ago, were scratches on the left rear fender.
The tires are punctured, and the radio is missing, but the upholstery appeared in good condition.
Hopper said the car was not junk because it appeared operable, there were no missing parts, it was not extensively damage and it was not rusty.
Was she surprised at Madison’s request?
“Yes and no,” Hopper said.
“He told me to go over and declare this junk. I said, ‘No, I’m not going to declare this junk.'”
Madison did not return two calls for comment.
Who was in charge?
It was unclear who was in charge Sept. 26 at the Third Street storage facility.
“That’s part of what we are looking into,” Crain said.
Crain said she would have been, but that she was out of town for a funeral.
“I think people thought certain people were in charge, but those people did not think they were in charge. There wasn’t like, ‘you are it,'” she said.
“That’s kind of part of why this happened, because there was some confusion as to who was doing what.
“People were making judgment decisions on what they needed to keep and not keep.”
Furthermore, the city was pressed for time because the lease on the storage facility was up on Sept. 30, Crain said.
Crain said the items in the storage facility could have been sold to other departments or sold on Web sites that cater to law enforcement agencies that are getting rid of outdated items, with the proceeds going into the city budget, but she questioned how “cost effective” that would be.
Exactly how the department will handle the disposal of items it considers worthless in the future is part of Crain’s investigation, she said.
Shortly after the incident was reported, Crain said she underwent knee surgery.
In December, Spinks underwent surgery to remove an acoustic neuroma, a noncancerous tumor on his auditory nerve. He plans to return to work in February.
That’s why the investigation is still ongoing, long after the incident was reported, Crain said.
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Staff writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-417-3536 and paul.gottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
