Sheila Lindley had a strange awakening last fall.

She had been lying down with her young child when she heard a strange sound outside the youth's bedroom window.

She got up to look and saw a person pushing and pulling a trailer with a 4.8-metre motorboat on it down a gravel path leading to a snow dump in the Copper Ridge subdivision of Whitehorse.

Sheila ran back to her own bedroom where her husband, William, was sleeping and woke him.

He called 911 and they sat and waited for Whitehorse RCMP to come, listening to the metal banging of the boat continuing down the path at 2 a.m. last Oct. 4.

Const. Jeff Monkman was one of the first officers to arrive at the scene, territorial court heard last Thursday.

Driving down the gravel road, Monkman came across two males standing next to a boat and a running truck.

Upon seeing the police, the two men took off and Const. Chris Faulkner, who was also on the scene, took after them through the trees.

'They bolted and I did too,' he told the court, adding he was familiar with the area as he lives in the neighbourhood and frequently walks his dogs to the snow dump.

Faulkner chased the men down a steep embankment yelling at them.

While he got very close to them, he made no attempt to physically stop them because he didn't want to injure himself.

Eventually, Faulkner gave up the chase, but listened to the direction they were travelling.

'The ground was wet. You could hear them run just like horses on a track,' he said.

He returned to Monkman and the boat, where the two officers waited for Cpl. Rod Hamilton and his police dog Justice to arrive.

Hamilton was only able to locate one of the men, Daniel Hans Eriksen.

The 24-year-old was on trial last Thursday for two charges related to theft. He also faces charges of being in possession of a break-in instrument and illegal drugs.

'He looked a little rough walking in socks,' Faulkner said of the suspect. 'I didn't see any footwear.'

Faulkner transported the man to police cells and found a pair of keys and a pair of gloves in Eriksen's clothing.

The officer went back and tried the keys in the truck, but doesn't remember if they started the vehicle, as it could start without keys.

The truck belonged to Eriksen's mother, Laura Ladu, who had lent the truck to Eriksen that day.

Inside the truck were the boat's Honda motor, batteries and a fuel can belonging to the owner of the boat, Chris Lock, a marine mechanic.

He said his boat was taken off his property on Lazulite Drive.

Lock hadn't even known the boat had gone missing until his neighbour, RCMP Const. Eyvi Smith, alerted him to the fact the morning after it was taken.

Lock went down to the RCMP detachment and claimed his $13,000-boat and other property.

With the help of the RCMP, Lock reinstalled his motor and later repaired some of the other damage done to the boat.

A tilt bracket was broken, straps were cut and a few bolts were missing after the boat was handled by the thieves.

Eriksen's trial is to wrap up at a later date to be set by lawyers.