Sunflower Seed Bandits
Burglars with a penchant for sunflower seeds broke into a Queen Anne building sometime between 4:30 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 22 and 11:30 a.m. on Saturday, Oct. 23. The commercial building, which is located in the 500 block of Yale Avenue North, has seen many contractors and laborers in recent days, so police are having a hard time pinning down suspects.
Police determined the suspects, who left a trail of sunflower seeds everywhere they went throughout the building, gained entry through the garage at the back of the building, as one of the walls was not completed.
Once inside the garage the suspects spray painted the building's surveillance camera. From the garage the suspects pried open a toolbox though police are not sure what exactly was taken.
Inside the building the suspects hit the third, fourth and fifth floors. Police believe the suspects were able to open the locked doors which had bar-style handles by standing on the bar, putting enough weight on it to break the bar thus releasing the lock.
On the third floor the suspects stole some tools. The fourth floor was being prepared for an art show, and the suspects were able to steal rented equipment and food. Police are not sure if the suspects were able to take anything from the fifth floor.
Some of the victims told police that some day laborers had been in the building on Thursday, Oct. 21. Some of the laborers had seen the equipment being brought in for the art show, and had expressed interest in the equipment.
Locker Break-in
After discovering his storage locker in his apartment building had been broken into, a Magnolia man called police. The apartment building is located in the 3400 block of 14th Avenue West. The man said the last time he checked his locker (on Sunday, Oct. 1) it was fine. However, when he went to his locker at 6 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 23 he found the lock broken.
The suspect was able to make off with two of the victim's mountain bikes. While at the scene police observed several other lockers that had been broken into.
Assault before dawn
Police responded to the 600 block of Denny Way after receiving a call stating that a woman had been assaulted at 3:11 a.m. on Sunday Oct. 24. When police spoke with her she first said she'd been hanging out at a spot on John Street just east of Dexter Avenue when an acquaintance she'd had beers with a few times approached her.
She first said she'd been there drinking beer, but then said she had been sleeping. She said the acquaintance was highly intoxicated and for no apparent reason attacked her, pinching her throat and slamming her down.
The woman said that when the acquaintance pinched her throat she could not breathe, and she was afraid for her life. She said he also sat on her head. He asked for sex but she declined. She wasn't sure if this was why he attacked her.
The woman had dried blood on her right hand, a small scratch under her left eye and dried blood on her clothes. She said her ribs on her left side were sore.
Police were later able to make contact with the acquaintance who denied the attack had occurred. The man was visibly intoxicated.
Police transported the woman to the West Precinct while they tried to find her a place to sleep for the night.
Kick or treat
Police arrived at an assault scene in the 600 block of Roy Street at about 4:30 a.m. on Sunday, Oct. 24 to find medics attending to an unconscious victim who was laying in the grass median. They spoke with a witness who said he had been standing outside the hotel on Sixth Avenue North with the victim and three suspects, all of whom he had just met.
The witness said one of the suspects punched the victim in the face, causing the victim to fall to the ground. From there the suspects began kicking the victim. The witness fled the scene, running around to the main entrance of the hotel on Roy Street. He said that when he looked back he saw the suspects running northbound on Sixth Avenue North.
The witness told the hotel clerk to call 911, and then went upstairs to get his friends. When they returned to the scene the victim was unconscious. One of the witness's friends was able to provide police with the contact information of the sister of one of the suspects.
Window Remover
Sometime between 2:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 27 and 7:45 a.m. on Thursday, Oct. 28 an unknown suspect burglarized a place of business located in the 3600 block of Thorndyke Avenue West. A woman who works at the business discovered the burglary when she arrived to work and found one of the windows had been removed.
The window, which is about three feet by five feet was undamaged, and had been left inside the building. The window frame is wood. The suspect pried the nails that had been holding the window in.
The woman said nothing appeared to have been taken from the business. Police say it appears the suspect attempted to pry several cabinets open, and kicked an office door open.
Car Prowl
When a man returned to his parked car in the 2000 block of Terry Avenue North at 1:30 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 31 he discovered it had been broken into. The car was parked in a secured parking garage. The suspect broke the front driver's side window and stole property from the inside. Damage to the vehicle is estimated at $250.
Sneaky Burglar
A man reported to police that on Wednesday, Oct. 27 while he and his wife were sleeping somebody broke into their house, located in the 3400 block of West Blaine Street, and stole his wallet and his wife's purse.
The man said that when he had gone to sleep at 2 a.m. the wallet was downstairs and the purse was upstairs. When they got up at 6 a.m. both were missing. These were the only items missing from the house, and nothing else had been messed with.
The victims told police they suspect their grandchild's mother, because she has a key to their house and is desperate for money. Police insist that there is no proof of this.
At the time of the police report the man had received his wallet back, because King County sheriffs deputies arrested someone on a stolen motorcycle who had the wallet in his backpack. The purse was still missing, however.
Abbondanza
A restaurant manager reported to police that sometime between 3:30 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 25 and 7 a.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 26 somebody broke into his office and stole his laptop and a bag of cash. The office is in a separate hallway from the restaurant, located in the 300 block of Elliott Avenue West, and has secure access apart from the restaurant.
The office door was pried open, it did not have a dead bolt. The bag of cash contained $200. Police were unable to uncover any fingerprints, but a security camera may have captured the events.
Needs Copper
Somebody entered a parking garage located in the 500 block of Yale Avenue North sometime before 12:36 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 25 and stole about three feet of copper wire from a power box in an air vent grate.
The building manager told police he believes the suspect got in by following a tenant in. The person kicked open the vent grate, crawled inside the utility room and pried open the power box to get to the copper wire.[[In-content Ad]]
