Open garage
On Feb. 17, police were dispatched to a home on Magnolia Boulevard West to investigate the burglary of an attached garage at 6:30 p.m. The two residents said they may have just left the garage door open, but they called 911, just in case.
The victim said her husband took the garbage out at about noon and noticed that the garage door was standing partially open.
The husband said he last saw the garage door closed at noon the previous day. They said the garage-door opener does not appear to be working.
Both victims said they are unsure if anything was taken from the garage.
There were no signs of any footprints or signs of any tampering on the garage door. The responding police officer closed the garage door.
Belligerent shoplifter
Police responded to a disturbance at a store in the 500 block of First Avenue West at 7:40 a.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 27. Upon arrival, the officer was waved into the store by employees. Inside, the store security officer was holding onto the sleeve of a shoplifting suspect.
Security stated that the suspect and his girlfriend, who was not present, had entered the store and taken several items off the shelves, including liquor, juice and a frozen dinner. Both suspects then ran for the front door without attempting to pay for the items.
Security employees said they’d been watching these same two people come in the store on several occasions and steal items, but they had never been able to stop them. They were finally able to stop them before they got out of the store, but the suspects put up a struggle, and the female was able to get out of the store and run away southbound with some stolen liquor.
Once the male suspect was in security’s control, he turned over a can of frozen juice that he had stolen. The suspect was apparently drunk and kept lying down on the floor and then jumping back up.
Although security said they saw him steal more, the suspect denied having other stolen merchandise. The officer conducted a putdown and located a boxed frozen dinner tucked into his pants. The stolen food was returned to the store employees.
The suspect was arrested for theft. He refused to enter the patrol car, and then he refused to sit up and, instead, lay across the back seat as they drove to the West Precinct.
The suspect was belligerent and screaming, and refused to get out of the car at the precinct. It took two officers to get him out, as he kicked, punched and lunged at the officers.
He was booked into King County Jail for shoplifting and assault.
Housewarming
Around 4 a.m. Feb. 18, a man living in the 600 block of West Nickerson Street heard glass break outside near his neighbor’s home. He went outside to look around, but he did not see anyone.
Later in the day, his neighbor, who is in the process of moving in, found that one of his front windows had been shattered. He called 911 to report the burglary.
The victim said he went inside and found that a small safe containing some jewelry and his stereo system had been stolen. Two CDs that had been inside the stereo were left behind, along with a black sweatshirt that did not belong to him.
Cased
On Feb. 19, around 8:20 p.m., police were dispatched to a home in the 1700 block of Taylor Avenue North in response to a reported burglary. The front door of the residence had been forced open; it appeared to have been kicked in.
The victim said that she left at 5:55 p.m. and returned at 7:37 p.m. to find her front door damaged.
The victim said several items were stolen from the apartment, including her driver license and passport, a set of spare keys, a gym bag with her wallet inside, two credit cards, an engraved iPod, jewelry, a silver watch and six purses. Also missing was a pillowcase, which the suspect probably used the pillowcase to carry the stolen items.
Police officers found fingerprints on the jewelry box, which was on the victim’s bed.
Busted back door
On Feb. 21 at 5:30 p.m., police were dispatched to a home in the 1400 block of West Boston Street to investigate a burglary.
The resident said that she had left the home around 9:05 a.m., and the back door was shut and locked. When she returned around 3:45 p.m., she tried to go in through the back door, but her key wouldn’t work. She pushed her key in harder and the door opened up. Then she noticed that the doorjamb and door lock were leaning against the wall.
The door did not have any pry marks or shoeprints, and the glass windowpanes were intact.
She said she checked the rooms and saw that some of her belongings were missing, including laptops, jewelry, an iPod, an iPad and an iPhone.
Liquor theft
On Feb. 25, police received a 911 call reporting the burglary of a garage on Thorndyke Avenue West, during which bottles of hard liquor had been stolen from a storage unit.
The burglary occurred between 10 p.m. the night before and 7:30 a.m. that morning.
The burglar apparently pried open the victim’s storage unit.
There were almost 100 bottles of expensive wine and numerous other valuable items left behind.