The following are selected reports from the Seattle Police Department’s West Precinct. They represent the officers’ accounts of the events described.
Violent Shoplifter
Just after 9:30 a.m. on Jan. 25, police responded to a 911 call from a store in the 600 block of Denny Way after receiving a report that a shoplifter had just stolen food and punched a cashier before running off down an alley. After officers arrived, the cashier told police he watched the suspect come into the store and take a pastry, then walk out without paying for it. The cashier confronted the suspect in the alley and took the pastry from him. The shoplifter punched the cashier in the face, then tried to punch him again but the cashier blocked the second strike. The suspect then ran away, and was last seen running down the alley.
Shoplifter With a Knife
At approximately 4:45 p.m. on Jan. 21, employees of a store in the 600 block of Queen Anne Avenue North called 911 to report a shoplifter who’d pulled a knife on an employee. The employees told responding officers they’d noticed the suspect was taking items off the shelves and putting them inside his coat and a bag he was carrying.
One employee approached the suspect and told him to remove the items from his coat and bag and to leave the store. The suspect responded by pulling a three-inch knife out of his pocket and making a stabbing motion towards the employee stating, “I will jugg you.”
Fearing for their safety, the employees backed away from the suspect but kept on eye on him. As he approached the front of the store the same employee told the suspect he should leave. He lunged at the employee with the knife, but made no contact. On his way out the door the suspect kicked over a display. He was last seen walking south along Queen Anne Avenue North.
Squatter
Just before 3:30 p.m. on Jan. 21, a man called 911 after driving by a coworker’s house and noticing suspicious people going in and out. He knew his coworker was out of town on an extended trip for a family emergency. He also noticed the car that is normally parked outside of the house was gone. Police responded to the house, located in the 3400 block of 13th Avenue West, and found the side door unlocked. The inside of the house was ransacked and it was apparent that somebody had been sleeping in a room downstairs. Police found drug paraphernalia and what looked like a pile of things set up to steal from the house. Suspecting that the squatter would return to the house, police left and told neighbors to keep an eye out and call 911 if anybody was seen entering the house. Officers attempted to get contact information for the homeowners and a short time later a neighbor called to report somebody had entered the house.
Officers went back to the home and found the suspect walking around with a flashlight. He claimed he was the homeowner’s nephew and said he was watching the house while the homeowner was out of town.
He gave very specific details about where the homeowner was, and handed over the keys to the house and the victim’s car, stating he’d parked the car down the street. Unable to disprove the suspect’s story, officers almost let him go, but the homeowner finally responded to an earlier phone call and stated that the suspect in the house was not her nephew and nobody had permission to be in her house.
Officers arrested the suspect for burglary. They searched his backpack, which contained burglary tools including a crow bar, binoculars and a knife. The backpack also contained a tablet computer that had a text chat wherein the suspect mentioned he needed the personal identification information of the homeowner, and some things that may have been stolen from the house including a silver dinner fork, keys and red bow tie. Police also found a brand new bike near the front door. The suspect said it was his. The victim’s car was found in an alley off of 14th Avenue West.
Unlocked Closet
Just after 1 p.m. on Jan. 23, a woman living in an apartment in the 500 block of Fifth Avenue West called 911 to report somebody broke into the storage closet on her balcony and stole $250 worth of goods. She said the burglary happened sometime between 1 p.m. on Jan. 20 and 3 p.m. on Jan. 22, and that the storage closet may have been left unlocked. She said nothing else was missing and it didn’t look like the burglar had tried to get into the main apartment.
Smashed Door
At approximately 5:15 p.m. on Jan. 19, police responded to a burglary at an apartment in the 2800 block of 14th Avenue West. The victim said she’d come home to find the sliding glass door at the front of her apartment had been shattered by a rock.
The rock was thrown through the door and was left on the floor inside the apartment. A small jewelry box was taken, but nothing else.