Man sentenced for using stolen backhoe and truck to steal 40 firearms from gun shops
The man who used a stolen backhoe and truck to break into two gun stores and steal nearly 40 firearms before he was arrested in Ferndale last year was sentenced to nearly five years in prison on Wednesday.
Joey A. Maillet, 39, was sentenced to 58 months in prison for two counts of theft of firearms from a federal firearms licensee in U.S. District Court in Seattle Oct. 7, according to a Department of Justice news release. Maillet, who pleaded guilty to the charges in February, also was ordered by U.S. District Judge Richard A. Jones to serve three years of probation after he is released.
Maillet was identified as the suspect in the April 13, 2019, burglary of Fred’s Guns in Sequim and the May 3, 2019, burglary of All American Armory in Bow, the release stated.
In Sequim, Maillet used a stolen backhoe to ram the doors of the store, then broke glass display cases to steal 26 guns, cutting his arm on the glass in the process and leaving blood and fingerprints at the scene, according to court documents.
In Bow, surveillance video showed Maillet using a stolen truck to back into the doors of the store, then using a garbage can he stole from a nearby post office to load 13 rifles and drive away, court records state.
The truck was later found abandoned in Birch Bay State Park, still with shattered glass from the Bow robbery in the truck bed along with a stolen boat motor and battery, the release states. A boat motor and battery were reported stolen by a Ferndale resident, and a video showed Maillet was the thief, according to the release.
A Ferndale police officer arrested Maillet on May 10, 2019, on an outstanding warrant out of Everett for burglary.
Seven of the handguns have been recovered by law enforcement in Canada, according to the prosecutor’s sentencing memo, adding that one was recovered from a woman arrested for theft in Vancouver, B.C., and from two men arrested in Calgary, Alberta, with approximately 250 fentanyl pills and several grams of methamphetamine.
None of the rifles stolen from the Bow gun story have been recovered.
Under terms of the plea agreement, Maillet will pay restitution to the gun stores for damages and the stolen guns and to the businesses from which he stole the backhoe and truck. He also must pay restitution to the owner of the stolen boat motor and battery, the release stated.
