SEQUIM — When Sally and Nick Parry woke up on Sunday morning, they found not only that some equipment was stolen off of their construction site in Willow Creek, but the entire job shack was towed off the property.
“On top of the big compressor, saws, nail guns, there were also littler things in there that were not worth so much but had sentimental value because they were given to us by people,” Sally Parry said.
The Parrys own Parry Construction Co. in Sequim and have been in business more than 30 years, she said.
Sally Parry said the job shack was fully secured with multiple locks and other precautions taken.
“We were even working on getting an alarm system installed, but obviously we didn’t get it in time,” she said.
The stolen trailer is a 1993 tan Northwest Customs closed box utility trailer with Washington license plate 1588RK, said Maris Turner, spokeswoman for the Sequim Police Department.
The loss totals approximately $20,000, Turner said. The trailer did not have any markings or company logos.
Anyone with information is asked to contact the Sequim Police Department at 360-683-7227.
It wasn’t the first construction robbery that Sally Parry had heard of in the past months.
“The reason we were working on getting the alarm system is we had heard an alert that there has been a problem with robberies,” Parry said.
Clallam County Sheriff’s Office Chief Criminal Deputy Ron Cameron said he didn’t have specifics, but there had been a recent increase in thefts from construction sites.
One construction site at Sequim Bay Park recently had a theft of a John Deere tractor, he said, though he didn’t know which company.
“This isn’t the first time we’ve had thefts like this,” he said.
“And although we at the Sheriff’s Office can’t say that they are related to each other or to the theft in Sequim this weekend, the proximity and the type are similar, so we’ll be working with the Sequim Police on this for sure.”
Neither he nor the Sequim police had a reason for why the thefts might have increased.
“You can’t really blame it all on drugs, but that is certainly a possibility,” Cameron said.
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Reporter Paige Dickerson can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at paige.dickerson@peninsuladailynews.com.