MOSES LAKE, Wash. — A Moses Lake man has been arrested for allegedly damaging and stealing two canal liners near the site of a recent irrigation canal breach near Moses Lake.
According to the Grant County Sheriff’s Office, 57-year-old Ivan Puyu was arrested on August 17 and booked into Grant County Jail for theft and malicious mischief.
The Sheriff’s Office said Puyu was seen by a Bureau of Reclamation employee using a reciprocating saw to cut apart two large liners stored on an East Columbia Basin Irrigation District flatbed trailer.
Puyu was then seen putting the liners onto a trailer behind his vehicle. When confronted about the theft, Puyu tried to return the damaged liners but was detained by Moses Lake Police.
Puyu told investigators he was looking for an underlayment for his children’s playground equipment and thought the liners were going to be thrown away.
The Sheriff’s Office said the liners were on a trailer in a dirt lot used to store the heavy equipment that was working on repairing the breached irrigation canal.
The replacement cost of the two damaged liners is about $3,000.
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