Tim Eyman maintains innocence after video of him walking off with office chair
Feb 19, 2019, 2:18 PM
Last Friday, security footage emerged of local political activist Tim Eyman walking out of Office Depot with a $70 office chair without paying. Now, he’s maintaining his innocence for what his lawyers are calling an “accidental removal.”
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“I did not … walk into an Office Depot in Lacey wearing a bright red ‘Let The Voters Decide’ t-shirt, smile for the cameras, and steal a $70 chair just moments before spending $300 on 2 printers and after getting some life changing good news. The reason that doesn’t make any sense is because it doesn’t make any sense. It’s ridiculous, it’s insane, it’s completely unbelievable,” said Eyman in a sworn declaration issued by his lawyers Tuesday.
The incident happened shortly before noon on Feb. 13 at the Office Depot at 602 Sleater-Kinney Road Southwest. Video of the incident appears to show Eyman sitting in a chair between entrance doors and, when the initial door to the Office Depot opens, taking it out to the parking area.
Eyman then returned to Office Depot, where, according to a clerk who helped him, he returned a printer, and then purchased two additional printers. The clerk helped him carry the printers out to his vehicle on a dolly, but was stopped by Eyman short of the vehicle.
Once outside, Eyman told the clerk “I’ve got it from here,” the police report reads.
According to Eyman’s sworn declaration, after walking back into the store, his intention was to pay for the chair. He claims he then received a phone call while he was waiting to be rung up by the clerk, citing cell phone records he says show the conversation started before and ended after the purchase.
He then allegedly left the store thinking he had successfully paid for all items he’d left with.
“We’ve all made those types of mistakes,” Casey Arbenz, one of Eyman’s two attorneys, told KIRO Radio.
The City of Lacey has filed charges against Eyman in District Court. His lawyers attempted to reach out to the city “to explain the circumstances of the chair’s accidental removal,” but were unable to do so because of the three-day holiday weekend.
