Two Port Angeles men were arrested for allegedly siphoning gasoline from a vehicle at the Clallam County Courthouse on Sept. 11.

The Clallam County Sheriff’s Office reports that Port Angeles residents Cory Stokes, 30, and Tyson Reynolds, 39, were arrested after they reportedly were trying to take gas from one of the Search and Rescue’s marked vehicles, a green Chevrolet Suburban.

According to a sheriff’s office report, at a little after 8 a.m. on Sept. 11, three Clallam County Courthouse employees were arriving at work when they spotted two males loitering near Clallam County Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue Vehicles parked in the courthouse parking lot, siphoning fuel from one of the vehicles. Deputies discovered a gas siphoning hose and 5-gallon gas can in the parking lot next to the opened gas cap of the Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue Suburban. About one-quarter tank of gas had been siphoned from the Suburban, the office reported.

Stokes and Reynolds were arrested by Clallam County Sheriff’s deputies for malicious mischief in the second degree, a Class C felony, and booked into the Clallam County Jail.

Tampering with the public’s emergency response vehicles, like those of the Clallam County Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue, hinders the unit’s ability to respond to emergent missions in the county and abroad.

The case is being referred to the Clallam County Prosecutor’s Office for a formal charging decision.