The following are selected reports from the Seattle Police Department’s West Precinct. They represent the officers’ accounts of the events described.
Liquor thief
At 7:09 p.m. on Nov. 3, employees of a store in the 500 block of First Avenue West called 911 to report a man had just shoplifted and then attempted to assault store security.
When police arrived, the store security officer said he watched the suspect enter the store and fill a basket with $75 worth of alcohol and leave without paying for it.
As the suspect walked out the door, he hid the bottles in his jacket, and in the process, one bottle fell out and broke on the ground.
When security tried to stop the man for shoplifting, he started throwing the bottles at the officers. As security followed after him, the man continued throwing the bottles, missing each time.
The suspect made his way north on West Mercer Street, when security stopped pursuing him.
Police searched the area for the suspect but couldn’t find him.
Serious shoplifters
At 7:19 a.m. on Nov. 12, police responded to a 911 call from a business in the 100 block of Mercer Street after a couple of shoplifters had gotten away from store security.
The security officer on duty at the time said he had watched a couple inside the store and saw the female suspect steal a multi-tool. He thought the male stole a pair of scissors, but he wasn’t sure.
When the couple exited without paying, the security officer tried to stop the female, but the couple ran away. He chased them and caught up to them at a bus stop about a block away on Mercer Street.
In his attempt to apprehend her, the security officer pinned the female suspect up against the wall. The male suspect threatened to pull a gun on the employee, putting his hand up his jacket. He then pulled out the scissors he’d stolen and a pair of 24-inch-long bolt cutters and began swinging them around.
In fear of his safety, the security officer let the female go, and the couple ran off southbound down an alley between First and Queen Anne avenues North.
The stolen multi-tool and scissors were recovered at the scene, as well as the bolt cutters and a backpack dropped by the suspects.
Police searched the neighborhood for the suspects but weren’t able to find them.
Tripped alarm
At 1:40 p.m. on Nov. 12, police responded to a 911 call from a private security company stating they had received an alarm call from a home in the 600 block of West Etruria Street and its security officers were in route.
The homeowner was out of town, and the security company had keys to the home. When they arrived, police found nobody inside. They brought a police dog inside to make sure.
A back window was open, but there were no signs that the burglar had actually entered the home. There were pry marks on the window, and the lock was damaged.
The security officers said the burglar alarm is loud, so the burglar was probably scared off by the noise.
Double burglary
At 8:24 a.m. on Nov. 11, employees at two neighboring businesses at First Avenue North and Roy Street called 911 to report they were broken into sometime overnight.
The burglar entered a shared interior hallway by one of three ways: from a locked door on the side of the building, from the parking garage or from the residences above.
Once inside, the burglar pried open several metal doors. The burglar did so much damage to one door, he tore a 15-inch section of drywall out of the wall, leaving a layer of white powder on the floor. The burglar had left several shoe prints behind from walking through the powder.
The suspect took the key to the men’s restroom from one business. From the other, he drank someone’s coffee drink, leaving the half-empty bottle behind, and took the cash register, a safe and a laptop.
Employees said about $400 were in the register, and the safe was empty. Police found a fresh chip on some cement steps in the back and assumed this was from the burglar dropping the safe.
Officers took the coffee bottle for DNA evidence and took impressions of the shoeprints for evidence.
Tool theft
At 7:45 a.m. on Nov. 9, police responded to a burglary at a business in the 1000 block of West Ewing Street.
The business manager said that, sometime between 5 p.m. on Nov. 6 and 6:30 a.m. on Nov. 9, a burglar entered s fenced-off storage area by cutting the padlock from the gate.
Once inside the storage area, the burglar cut off two additional padlocks to a shed and a trailer and took a chainsaw, two outboard motors, an air compressor and some hand tools.