Deputies said they found counterfeit money and fake IDs after a pursuit that ended when a wheel fell off the suspect’s car Sunday night.
The incident began when Thurston County Sheriff’s Office deputies were told that a driver fled from Centralia police. A TCSO deputy spotted the vehicle heading toward Tenino and tried to pull the car over, but the driver did a U-turn and the chase began.
A second deputy set up a spike strip, which successfully punctured the suspect’s tires. The driver tried to flee on Interstate 5, but one of the wheels fell off the car and the suspect surrendered.
Not only did the driver have multiple arrest warrants for crimes along the I-5 corridor, but was also found with a large amount of counterfeit money and fake IDs, according to the TCSO.
Their warrants include third- and second-degree theft, and multiple counts of forgery, car theft, and identity theft. Authorities said the suspect was also involved in a fraud incident in Tumwater on Saturday, and was booked for pending charges for Sunday’s activities, including attempting to elude.
The spike strip deployment demonstrates law enforcement tactics designed to end pursuits by disabling vehicles while minimizing collision risks compared to PIT maneuvers or ramming, though the technique occasionally results in dramatic failures like wheels completely detaching from vehicles.
The discovery of counterfeit money and fake IDs alongside outstanding warrants for forgery, identity theft, and fraud suggests the suspect operated as a serial fraudster targeting multiple jurisdictions along the I-5 corridor, using fabricated documents and currency to commit crimes across Thurston County and beyond.
The suspect’s multiple warrants spanning third-degree theft, second-degree theft, forgery, car theft, and identity theft reflect an escalating pattern of property crimes where individuals graduate from minor offenses to more serious felonies involving sophisticated schemes requiring fake identification and counterfeit currency.
The Centralia-to-Tenino-to-I-5 chase route demonstrates how suspects attempt to exploit jurisdictional boundaries and highway access to evade capture, calculating that high-speed interstate flight provides escape opportunities despite spike strips and multi-agency coordination.
The wheel falling off after spike strip deployment likely resulted from continued high-speed driving on deflated tires that separated the wheel from the axle or hub assembly, creating mechanical failure that pursuit intervention techniques aim to induce while maintaining some vehicle control.
The Saturday fraud incident in Tumwater followed by Sunday’s pursuit suggests the suspect remained active in the area despite knowing police were investigating the previous day’s crime, indicating either desperation or miscalculation about law enforcement’s ability to connect incidents.
Attempting to elude charges added to the existing warrant list compounds the suspect’s legal jeopardy, with pursuit-related offenses carrying separate penalties that judges often stack consecutively rather than concurrently with underlying crimes.
