Pair Leave Pathway For Police

SEATTLE - A couple of Christmas grinches stole a giant neighborhood Christmas tree from the Ravenna area yesterday morning.

Police found the two young men, both 18, several blocks away, dragging the 35-foot tree behind their car. The tree was being dragged by a rope tied to the car's bumper, police said. The two men admitted the theft, said they were University of Washington students and were released later to the mother of one of them.

The tree was cut down from a traffic circle at 17th Avenue Northeast and Northeast 63rd Street, police said.

A neighbor called police when he heard the racket and saw the tree being stolen shortly before 4 a.m.