Trucking News · Washington · November 9, 2026

Truckers: Puyallup Farm Semi Theft Attempt

Illustration of a green semi with a tanker trailer on a gravel farm road as a man locks a farm gate with a chain, a snowy mountain behind — Illustration for this story. Not a photo of a specific location.

Image caption: Illustration: AI-generated illustration, not a photo of the people, vehicles or places in this story. It shows a generic green semi with a tanker trailer on a farm road.

A man got inside a semi-truck at a farm in the Puyallup area of Pierce County, Washington, early on Nov. 4 and started it up, but deputies arrived before he could get it moving, according to the Pierce County Sheriff's Office. The office says a 24-year-old man was arrested.

The sheriff's office shared the account in a post and a video on X on Nov. 6. "If you're going to steal a vehicle, that's one problem. But stealing a semi-truck is a whole other problem," Deputy Carly Cappetto of the sheriff's office says at the start of the video. KIRO 7 also reported the arrest.

What the sheriff's office says happened

Deputies were sent to an in-progress motor vehicle theft of a semi-truck at a farm in the Puyallup area, the sheriff's office says. A security guard had called 911 to report that a man had gotten inside one of the farm's semi-trucks and started it up after smoking something inside the cab. Time stamps on the patrol car camera footage in the video show the response shortly after 2 a.m.

When deputies arrived, the office says, the man was turning the steering wheel and trying to figure out how to get the truck moving. Deputies told him several times to get out. The office says he did not comply and was removed from the cab. The office says he continued not to comply, and a Taser was used before he was taken into custody.

The sheriff's office says the man was arrested for attempted motor vehicle theft and resisting arrest, and that drug paraphernalia was found in his belongings. The office did not release his name. An arrest is not a conviction, and the post and video do not describe any charges filed in court.

Why the brakes mattered

The sheriff's office says the man could not get the truck moving. In the video, the office says, "We are thankful the suspect was not able to figure out the brakes. This could have been much worse if the suspect had been able to drive off."

The office's post on X called it "a close call for a disaster." The security guard's 911 call came while the man was still in the cab, and deputies arrived while he was still trying to get the truck moving.