LYNNWOOD — A stolen U-Haul truck was found near Lynnwood on Friday and police were trying to reunite an Illinois nurse headed to Alaska with her life’s possessions.
Callers to 911 spotted the abandoned rig near Filbert Road and N. Damson Road around 2 p.m., Everett police officer Aaron Snell said.
Deputies with the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office drove to the area and found the U-Haul box truck, trailer and the woman’s Chrysler Town and Country minivan within blocks of each other, Snell said.
There were items in the truck believed to belong to Kristen Shaulis. Everett police detectives alerted her to the discovery Friday afternoon and were working to arrange for her property to be returned.
“It is unknown if anything is missing,” Snell said. “We are hoping it is all there.”
Shaulis, 39, stopped in Everett on Wednesday night on her trek north. She was on her way to a new job on an Indian reservation in Metlakatla, a small town on Annette Island southeast of Ketchikan.
Shaulis headed to Bellingham on Friday to catch the Alaska ferry. On Wednesday, she stopped for the night in Everett with her two black Labradors, Max and Misty.
She parked the U-Haul, with her minivan on the trailer, outside the Best Western at 2800 Pacific Ave. She checked in the motel about 8:30 p.m. and went to bed.
She walked the dogs at midnight, and the U-Haul was there. They headed out for another walk at 7 a.m.
The U-Haul and the trailer were gone.
The thief’s image was captured on surveillance video. Everett police on Thursday distributed the video footage and surveillance stills in hopes of generating tips to get Shaulis’ stuff back. Gone were her sofa, bed and her late mother’s antique dish set.
Shaulis had a grandmother who made her quilts. Those quilts, along with her own quilting supplies and sewing machine, were in the U-Haul.
License plates on the vehicles had been replaced with ones from other states. Everett police, the sheriff’s office and the county’s auto-theft task force were working together to identify the thieves.
“The case is under investigation and detectives are working leads along with physical evidence from the scene,” Snell said.
Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446, stevick@heraldnet.com
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