The Jefferson County Sheriff's Office is searching for a man who is believed to have stolen a John Deer excavator that was stolen in Quilcene in June 2020.

The search for the suspected burglar began earlier this month after an Adelma Beach resident reported a break-in at a storage container.

The resident said he discovered a man removing items from his container Friday, April 9 and confronted him, the sheriff's office said in a Facebook post, and the burglar dropped the items and drove away in a green Ford F250. 

A sheriff's deputy tried stop a green Ford F250 in Quilcene the next day for what looked like an expired registration, according to the sheriff's office.

The driver fled the scene, and led deputies on a 13-mile chase that ended after the man drove his truck into a tree on Rocky Brook Road in Brinnon.

Deputies determined the truck had been stolen, and also found a set of tires belonging to the Adelma Beach resident in the bed of the truck.

Police used a K9 unit to search for the driver, and the dog led deputies south to a property on Mossy Lane where deputies discovered a motorhome with no license plates and an excavator with a shoddy orange paint job. Authorities said the excavator was not a "Daewoo," which had been stenciled on the side, but a piece of John Deere equipment that was similar to the one reported stolen from Quilcene last year.

After getting a search warrant April 15, detectives found the excavator was the one that had been reported stolen earlier in Quilcene. 

The motorhome on the property had been reported stolen in Port Orchard in 2020, according to the sheriff's office.

Detectives are still investigating a possible suspect.