The following are selected reports from the Seattle Police Department’s West Precinct. They represent the officers’ accounts of the events described.
Coin Theft
Just before 9:30 p.m. on Oct. 26, police responded to a 911 call from the manager of an apartment building in the 500 block of Fourth Avenue West reporting a burglary in the building’s laundry room. The building manager said that sometime between 8:30 p.m. the day before and 10 a.m. that morning, someone tampered with the coin-operated washing machines and dryers in the laundry room and stole all the change from inside — approximately $800.
The building manager said he’d been informed of the theft by the person who comes to empty the coin boxes every month. She said she couldn’t open two of the machines’ coin boxes, and the other four were empty. The locks had been forced open, and the metal around the key holes was bent. The resident who lives directly above the laundry room said he heard a lot of noise coming from the laundry room between 10 and 11 p.m. the night before.
The building manager told police it would cost about $40 per machine to repair the coin boxes. Officers searched the building, but couldn’t find any definitive evidence of forced entry. They did, however, find fingerprints on an inside portion of a coin box that only the thief would have touched. Although it is a secured-entry building, the laundry room is unlocked and accessible to anybody inside the building.
Thirsty Burglar
Just after 8:30 p.m. on Oct. 26, police responded to a house in the 2400 block of Queen Anne Avenue North after receiving reports of a burglary. The victim said the burglary happened sometime while she was away, between 8:30 a.m. and 8:30 p.m. that night. The burglar pried-open a ground-level kitchen window. Then, the burglar opened drawers throughout the house and ransacked the bedroom.
Despite the presence of diamond earrings, watches and a brand new iPad, the only thing the burglar stole was an $80 bottle of Patron. Police found fingerprints on the kitchen door, light switches in the bedroom and bathroom, and on the drawers in the master bedroom.
Stolen Jewels
At approximately 6:30 a.m. on Oct. 29, a couple living in a house in the 2300 block of Rosemont Place West called 911 to report a burglary that occurred the previous evening. The victims said they’d been away from home between 6:50 p.m. and 11:55 p.m. the previous night.
When they got home, they found that somebody entered the house through a dog door and stole a bunch of jewelry from the bedroom. The burglar rummaged through all the drawers in the bedroom to find the jewelry. Responding police found a few fingerprints while investigating the burglary.
Victimized Senior
At approximately 2:15 p.m. on Oct. 29, the residents of a house in the 300 block of Highland Drive called 911 to report a burglary. They said sometime between 1 a.m. and 4 a.m. someone threw a brick through their glass back door, creating a large enough hole to climb through. The burglar had first thrown a clay pot at the glass, breaking the pot but leaving the glass intact. The burglar put a rug over the shattered glass, so he or she could safely walk over it.
The suspect went to the third floor, pulling up the blinds in the windows on that floor. The elderly resident of the house was asleep in his bed and slept through the whole burglary. The burglar ransacked the master bedroom closet and dresser drawers while the victim slept in the same room. The victim told police he didn’t know if anything was taken during the burglary, but the burglar did go through his wallet, probably looking for credit cards.
Grand Theft Auto
Just before 8:30 a.m. on Oct. 31, a man living on the 500 block of Aloha Street called 911 to report his car was stolen from his building’s secure parking garage sometime between 9 p.m. the previous night and 7:30 a.m. that morning. As there are no surveillance cameras in or around the garage, there was no way of knowing who stole the car.
The apartment building is secured entry, and there are multiple keys required to enter the building and its garage. Responding officers found no signs of forced entry to the building.
Violent Shoplifter
Just after 11:30 a.m. on Oct. 26, police responded to a 911 call from a grocery store in the 500 block of Mercer Street reporting a shoplifter had assaulted an employee. The victim, who is the store manager, said he’d watched the suspect conceal a bag of unpaid groceries. The manager went to the front door, where he confronted the suspect as he tried to exit without paying for the stolen goods.
The suspect closed the umbrella he was carrying and began beating the victim with it. The suspect hit the victim multiple times on the arm and body, leaving a cut on the victim’s hand. The suspect fled southbound on Fifth Avenue North with the stolen goods still in hand. The victim had already super glued the cut when police responded. He gave officers a picture of the suspect that he’d taken with his cell phone.