PORT TOWNSEND — What’s the fastest way get a Port Townsend police officer’s attention?
Slash tires on five police cars parked right outside the Water Street police station.
Using a three-inch pocket knife, an apparently intoxicated 33-year-old Port Townsend man is accused of doing just that Monday night.
He was apprehended and arrested by three fleet-footed police officers after a chase around a downtown block that ended at Quincy and Water streets.
“We are not really sure why he did it. He said he wanted our attention,” said Sgt. Ed Green, who assisted in chasing down the man.
“He got it in a big way.”
The man, who authorities didn’t identify, was arrested for investigation of five counts of first-degree malicious mischief for disabling emergency vehicles and was booked into Jefferson County jail.
The county Prosecuting Attorney’s Office is expected to file Superior Court charges today against the man.
Felony counts
Authorities said they classified the charges as felonies because emergency vehicles were involved.
The five patrol cars were parked so close to the police station that the sounds of air coming from deflating tires were heard by Police Officer Dan Huynh inside the station.
Stepping outside, “Officer Huynh could see that the tires on the police vehicles were going flat, so he yelled at the man, asking what he was doing,” the police report said.
The damage to the tires, estimated at $3,000, left five cars with flats in the police station parking lot.