Suspected Burglary Quickly Defused in Chelan

A burglary call on Saturday afternoon turned out to be a misunderstanding, according to the Chelan County Sheriff's Office.

Shortly after noon local time, authorities were alerted to a suspected intruder in Chelan.

The would-be victim, according to Sergeant Chris Foreman, was a local resident; he owns a trailer on Washington Creek Rd., in an area north of Lake Chelan off Hwy 97. He was apparently away at the time, remotely monitoring his home security system.

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The owner spotted a stranger on the property. He was alarmed enough to summon Chelan County deputies.

Deputies then made contact with the subject, only to discover that he was not, in fact, a burglar. The subject was a seemingly innocuous out-of-towner visiting from Montana, Foreman says.

Much time had elapsed since the subject's last visit. He knew the previous owner of the trailer and was endeavoring to reestablish contact. He tried leaving a note to that effect in the trailer doorway.

"All of that was verified," Foreman says. "It ended up not being a burglary in progress. They didn't arrest [the subject] based on what he was actually doing."

"It appears that everything in the subject's story checked out - who he was trying to find that used to live in the trailer."

When the call came in, however, Foreman expected it to be eventful.

"It definitely sounded that way at first," he says. "But the end result was different."

The owner of the trailer just asked that the subject be trespassed off his property.

Trespassing is ordinarily a misdemeanor under Washington law or, in extreme cases, a gross misdemeanor.