A man who sparked an overnight police search in the Adna area after he allegedly broke into a residence and stole a firearm Thursday evening was arrested early Friday morning after two citizens found him in their hot tub about 4 miles away from the initial burglary.
The man, Zachary A. Merrin, 28, of Elma, was booked into the Lewis County Jail on first-degree burglary charges at 5:45 a.m., according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office.
The search began after a citizen who was house sitting at a residence in the 1900 block of Bunker Creek Road reported seeing a man with a dog run out of the house at about 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, March 6, according to the sheriff’s office.
Adna residents who posted about the incident on social media said the suspect was wearing a ski mask and left a beer and a machete behind when he left the Bunker Creek Road residence.
He allegedly stole a gun and ammunition from the Bunker Creek Road residence and was later seen trespassing in the backyards of nearby residences.
The Lewis County Sheriff’s Office, the Centralia Police Department and the Washington State Patrol responded with K9 teams and a state patrol aircraft to search for the suspect.
“There was a whole lot of searching for this individual,” Lewis County Sheriff’s Office Special Services Chief Gabriel Frase said Friday morning.
At about 4:30 a.m. Friday morning, law enforcement officials received a call from residents in the 2000 block of Lincoln Creek Road reporting that the suspect was in their hot tub, according to the sheriff’s office.
The residents were advised to not contact the suspect and to wait until law enforcement personnel arrived.
“My girlfriend and I apprehended the perp this morning chilling in our hot tub, so I just let him soak until the cops got here,” one of the residents posted on social media Friday morning.
First-degree burglary charges are pending, but had not been filed as of Friday afternoon.
