Ungentlemanly Jack
On March 1 at 12:51 a.m., a police officer was dispatched to a store in the 600 block of First Avenue North in response to reports of a shoplifter who was fighting with store employees.
When the officer was in the area, dispatch updated the call to say the suspect had fled the store and was running away westbound on Mercer Street. The officer searched the neighborhood for the suspect but didn’t find him.
Store employees say the suspect came in the front doors and immediately went to the liquor aisle. One employee watched the suspect take a bottle of whiskey and put it in his coat. She confronted the suspect and told him to use a shopping basket if he was to continue shopping. She also told the suspect that she saw him conceal the bottle of alcohol and that he needed to return it.
At this point, the suspect began to walk toward the doors. The other three employees in the store came to the front of the store to detain the suspect.
One employee said she could hear bottles banging together in the suspect’s pants and backpack, so the employees grabbed as many alcohol bottles from the suspect's pants and backpack as they could.
Eventually, the suspect was able to flee the store.
The employees said they recovered six bottles of whiskey, totaling more than $145. The employees said they think the suspect did get away with some items, but they’re not sure what.
Records thief
Employees of a Queen Anne hotel called 911 to report that a locked storage room in its parking garage had been broken into. The break-in occurred between midnight March 4 and 3 p.m. March 5.
The burglar pried open a padlock and bent the lock hasp on the door to open it and enter the storage room.
This room contained hotel records, customer and account information, credit-card information, deposit slips and other records for the hotel for up to the last eight years that were kept for tax purposes. Several boxes of records were taken from shelves inside of the storage room.
Keg heist
On March 3 at 5:33 p.m., police responded to a business in the 300 block of West Galer Street after management called 911 to report a non-forced burglary.
Management said several bottles of liquor and two full kegs of beer, worth about $1,000 total, were stolen from the storage area.
There are two other units near the storage area, which are currently being rented out. The tenant of one of the units said he had not heard or observed anything suspicious in the last few days. He did say that his bicycle was stolen from the common area a few days prior, but he hadn’t reported it stolen.
The management told police they’d spoken with the employees who closed the business the previous evening, and the last employee went into the storage area at 9 p.m. and the alcohol had been in there at that time. When employees went to open the business at 4 p.m. the day of the police report, the alcohol was gone.
Ransacked room
A man in the 1500 block of Taylor Avenue North called 911 when he arrived home to find it ransacked.
The man said he’d been gone from 5 to 7 p.m. on March 1. When he got home, he noticed his hallway light on and the window screen on the floor inside.
He found his bedroom ransacked and a large number of items missing.
There was no forced entry found into his apartment.
Unoccupied house
A man in the 2100 block of Dexter Avenue North was away Feb. 24 through March 4 for business. When he returned, he found that the front door to his home was open.
Upon entering, he found that the contents of most of the drawers and closets had been removed and dumped onto the floors. Cabinets were open, items had been moved from room to room and items were missing.
Police walked through the house with the victim, who pointed out that a ceramic pot that had been in one room had been moved to another. The officers dusted the pot for fingerprints and found one near the base and another on the handle.
The back door to the house was ajar. It appeared that it had been forced open, damaging the door, lock, jamb and latch.