Seattle man sentenced to 8 years for dealing drugs out of stolen car

A Seattle man was sentenced Tuesday to eight years in prison for possession of controlled substances with intent to distribute. He was initially arrested in a car that had been stolen from Seattle Children’s Hospital garage, according to Acting U.S. Attorney Tessa Gorman.

Timothy Laucks, 42, was also charged with possession of a firearm, increasing the significance of this drug trafficking crime. He pleaded guilty on September 26, 2023, with U.S. District Judge James Robart imposing an additional three years of supervised release following his prison term.

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“Laucks was spotted driving a car that had been stolen at the Children’s Hospital parking garage, while the owner was inside with a sick child,” Gorman wrote in a prepared statement. “The car was taken on October 30 and just days later, on Nov. 4, 2022, Seattle Police Department (SPD) spotted the car in the Ballard neighborhood.”

SPD officers followed and observed the car for a few hours after it was spotted, according to U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) documents, while Laucks drove to various homeless encampments in the Seattle area. At these locations, Laucks was seen carrying a pizza box “thinly disguising” himself from trafficking narcotics to those within the homeless encampments.

“Officers followed Laucks, who drove to a downtown grocery store parking lot,” Gorman continued. “When officers pulled their marked patrol car in front of the stolen car, Laucks hit the accelerator crashing into the patrol car. He attempted to flee on foot but was caught within moments.”

Officers recovered a .40 semi-automatic pistol that had been reported stolen in Redmond alongside multiple narcotics packaged for distribution — Zanax, fentanyl pills, powder, cocaine, meth and heroin — in a backpack he tossed while he attempted to flee. A second handgun and more than $8,000 in cash was found on him when he was arrested.

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“He claimed he had purchased the car from someone else and didn’t realize it had been stolen from a family with a sick child until he saw some medical paperwork in the car,” Gorman stated. “He told officers he had intended to return the car and the paperwork but ‘got busy making drops.'”

Laucks was indicted by the grand jury on March 1, 2023. Laucks has multiple prior convictions prohibiting him from possessing firearms, including felony convictions in Whatcom and Skagit Counties.