Man steals half-million dollars of crab pretending to be Safeway representative in the North Sound

A seafood heist, involving about a half-million dollars worth of crab, is playing out in the North Sound.

That’s what federal prosecutors say happened in Stanwood.

KIRO 7 obtained charging documents Sunday night that show a Florida man, David Subil, pretended to be a Safeway representative, and sent fake purchase orders to a California seafood company.

Prosecutors say he ordered hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of King Crab and Opilio crab in multiple orders.

The shipments were sent to North Star Cold Facility in Stanwood.

The U-S district court says Subil then rented a “Ryder” truck to pick up the crab order.

But payments never went through.

“On or about Jan. 3, a coconspirator fraudulently represented himself as an employee from a national grocery corporation placing an order for seafood and convinced Artic Seafood to release $432,000 worth of Russian King Crab from a North Star Cold Facility, located in Snohomish County, to David Subil and his associates,” say charging documents.

Snohomish county deputies tracked Subil down at a weigh station – and found out he sold some of the stolen seafood to another company in Florida.

Documents say he tried to flee to Columbia and even bought a one-way plane ticket.

Charges filed against him on March 3 include conspiracy to commit interstate transportation of stolen property.

These operations began around the end of Jan. and went on to the end of Feb., say charging documents.

It’s not currently clear where Subil is right now.