The High-Speed Chase Between Seattle and Tacoma
A chauffeur chases his stolen $5,000 Pierce Arrow across the county lines only to lose the trail in the dark.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
After a most exciting chase for an automobile thief, in which two large autos bounded over the road from Seattle to Tacoma during the early hours of morning today, Guy Havaugh, a Seattle chauffeur, arrived here about 9 o'clock and applied to the police for aid. He said that he had followed his own automobile, which was stolen by an unknown person in Seattle about 3 o'clock a.m., until he reached Pacific Avenue and Puyallup Avenue, this city, where he suddenly lost the trail. Havaugh says that he was called to an address on Seneca Street, Seattle, early this morning and he drove his large Pierce Arrow car, valued at $5,000, to the place. While searching in the dark for the supposed address he heard someone cranking his machine. Next moment the auto had disappeared down the hill. Havaugh secured another car and gave chase, finally arriving here. No trace of the missing machine has been found.
“While searching in the dark for the supposed address he heard some one cranking his machine. Next moment the auto had disappeared down the hill.”
Long before the modern I-5 commute, a stolen high-end vehicle was enough to trigger a cinematic cross-city pursuit. The chase highlights the early, lawless days of the automobile in the Puget Sound region, long before sophisticated tracking or rapid law enforcement inter-agency coordination.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.