This is a Seattle story if I've ever seen one. A classic for the history books. Seattle in a nutshell.
So this lady, Olive Teague, she had her 1996 Ford F350 RV — her home and business place — stolen back in December. And when it was finally found in March, it had been lived in by a bunch of hobos and driven a total of 1,300 extra miles. The thing was trashed to say the least, and it needed a lot of repairs and cleaning.
Olive wrote this on her GoFundMe page:
During the cleaning process we discovered drugs, guns, stolen jewelry, bike parts, hunting weapons, a raccoon trap, and so many more unmentionables. There is fire damage to the inside of the RV. The walls, my brand new mattress, and the carpets have deep burn marks on them.
Gross. Just absolutely gross.
This is what happens when you live in Seattle. Your business, The Seattle Mermaid School in this case, gets washed away by hobos.
Inside the RV was mermaid gear and free-diving equipment for Olive's business, 'The Seattle Mermaid School,' along with the entire festival set up for Alchemy Aquatic Entertainment LLC.
(Yes, this "school" has to do with the trend of "mermaiding" all over the world - I told you this was on-brand for Seattle!!)
All of this, along with Olive's personal belongings, was gone when the RV turned up "sold" in Aberdeen, out on the coast. Police would arrest the man who had attempted to sell it.
But this next part is something else — something more Seattle than the Space Needle. They brought the dude who stole the RV out to help them start the RV. Olive got out her phone and started recording so we wouldn't assume this was fake news.
Olive wrote:
Of course, my ignition has also been punched out. My friend and the responding officer tried for a good 15 minutes to jump the vehicle while I was cleaning out the rear. Eventually, I overheard the officer say 'You know what? I don't want us to do more damage to the ignition by messing with it. I know a guy back at the station who definitely knows how to do this.' And so he left.
I thought nothing of this during my deep clean of the bedroom section. He's going to get another officer... right? That's what I assumed until I turned around to find not another policeman teaching my friend how to jump the ignition, but THE ACTUAL MAN WHO STOLE MY VEHICLE. The responding officer went to the county jail and got the literal man who they booked for selling my rig and took him on a little field trip out to teach us how to start my RV.
And that, ladies and gentleman, is the quintessential Seattle story of the year; and you won't see another one like this until, well, next week or the week after.
Thank you Seattle, and the Aberdeen Police Department, for this wonderful bit of entertainment.
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