The following are selected reports from the Seattle Police Department’s West Precinct. They represent the officers’ accounts of the events described.
Sophisticated Burglar
Just before 8:15 a.m. on Jan. 29, police responded to a 911 call reporting a burglary at a restaurant in the 200 block of West Mercer Street. The restaurant manager told police that the burglary occurred sometime overnight, between midnight and 8 a.m., and showed responding officers a hole in the roof that the burglar had cut using a power saw.
The suspect climbed onto the roof using either a ladder or a vehicle backed up to the side of the building. The suspect dropped into the kitchen by popping out ceiling tiles and pulling out insulation, then made his way into the office where he tried to cut a hole in the side of the safe using a power tool, but was unsuccessful.
A puddle of water and some three-inch fiber cutting wheels were left on the floor next to the safe. It appeared the suspect, after failing to access the safe, rifled through some filing cabinet drawers in the office before giving up and leaving.
Unwanted Visitor
Just before 1:30 p.m. on Jan. 28, police were called to an apartment building in the 300 block of West Olympic Place. Construction workers told responding officers that someone broke into the building, which is undergoing a major re-model, by peeling back part of a fence surrounding the property.
The suspect went into the one apartment that was finished and set up as a model home, and squatted overnight. Construction workers believed the burglary took place between 6 p.m. the day before and 9 a.m. that morning.
The suspect left the apartment in disarray with vomit in a sink, mud on the floor and garbage scattered throughout the home. He’d made himself a bed in the closet of the master bedroom by moving couch cushions in there. The suspect stole two of three bottles of wine that had been set up in the apartment for display, and drank the third.
Victimized Construction Site
Just after 9 a.m. on Jan. 27, workers at a construction site in the 200 block of Ninth Avenue North called 911 to report a burglary that happened sometime overnight. Sometime between 5:30 p.m. the previous evening and 6 a.m. that morning, a suspect cut a large hole in the fence on the alley side of the site.
A power washer, a plasma cutter, a pro-press copper clamper, and multiple drill motors were stolen from the site. Police later located the pressure washer behind a dumpster in the alley. Construction workers estimated about $5,000 of equipment was stolen.
The suspect tried to pry open two locked toolboxes and failed, but damaged the boxes to the point they needed to be replaced. Workers stated the toolboxes would cost about $750 each to replace, and the cut fence would cost $100 to fix.
Smashed Glass Door
Just after 2:30 p.m. on Jan. 26, police responded to a burglary at a house in the 1900 block of Magnolia Boulevard West. The homeowner stated she’d been away from home between 1:30 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. that day, and when she got home she found a rock thrown through the glass of a basement-level French door and her house ransacked. The burglar stole a pillow case, jewelry, a crystal vase filled with quarters and two wooden trays holding watches from the master bedroom. A laptop was taken from the office. Responding police noted that this burglary was very similar to another burglary they responded to a week earlier in the same neighborhood wherein the burglar threw a rock through a window and used a pillow case to carry stolen items.
Mail Thief
At approximately 11 a.m. on Jan. 26, the manager of an apartment in the 200 block of Fifth Avenue North called 911 to report a suspect had been stealing packages from the building’s mailroom. She said after noticing packages had been going missing she checked the security camera footage for the past two days and saw on both days — Jan. 24 and 25 — a suspect pried the front door open. The suspect went straight to the mail room and pried that door open as well. On both days the suspect left the building with a handful or bag full of stolen packages.