Bellingham police scuttle Alaska sailors’ canoe caper

BELLINGHAM, Wash. – A pair of sailors from Alaska could have found themselves in the brig, but instead were cited and released on suspicion of misdemeanor theft when they were caught stealing a canoe from atop a parked car near Bellingham Technical College, police said.

Officers stopped Duran Philip O. LaFramboise, 37, and Loren Gosline Churchill, 50, walking toward Squalicum Harbor at 12:46 a.m. Thursday, April 27. They were carrying the canoe, police said.

“(A) witness called to report watching as two males stole a canoe off a neighbor’s car,” said police Lt. Claudia Murphy.

“Officers contacted the duo with the stolen orange canoe in the 2900 block of Roeder Avenue, midway through their very long portage,” Murphy told The Bellingham Herald in an email.

“Churchill admitted stealing it with LaFramboise and that they needed it for their boat, in which they recently arrived from Alaska,” Murphy said.

Churchill and LaFramboise were cited and released, and the canoe was returned to its home port, Murphy said.