By LEAH WEATHERSBY

CASE OF THE 1-900 CALLER:

On Oct. 13, at approximately 11 a.m., a Ballard man in his 40s called the police to report a theft of services.

On Aug. 16, the man and his roommate, a woman in her 50s, had invited their neighbor over to their apartment. According to the man who called police, the neighbor had left when he and his roommate decided to go to bed. However, the man believes that his neighbor returned later and somehow gained entry to the apartment. The neighbor borrowed the man and woman's cordless phone from 2:22 a.m. until 5:34 a.m. and made numerous calls to 1-900 numbers at a total cost of $287.66. When the man got his phone bill in September he confronted his neighbor who denied any knowledge of the calls.

On Aug. 30, the neighbor once again obtained the phone by unknown means and made six more 1-900 calls between 3:43 a.m. and 6:32 a.m., charging more than $450 to the phone bill. The neighbor returned the phone to the female roommate later that morning.

When the man once again received a huge phone bill and confronted his neighbor, this time with his roommate in tow, the neighbor admitted making the calls but did not tell the man how he got a hold of his phone. The neighbor said he had been drunk when he made the calls and offered to help pay the bill.

The police contacted the neighbor who admitted to making calls on Aug. 16. He said he was invited into the apartment and the complainant gave him permission to use the phone when the female roommate went to bed. He added that the complainant had even made one of the calls himself. The neighbor denied any knowledge of calls made on Aug. 30.

FINDERS KEEPERS?

On Oct. 14, a taxi cab arrived at a Fremont bar to pick up two male passengers. The men got into the taxi and, according the driver, one of the men picked up a wallet that had evidently been left behind by a previous fare. The man removed money from the billfold and then, leaving the wallet in the back seat, exited the cab.

The second man apologized for his companion's behavior and got out of the cab as well.

Later, as the responding officers left the scene, they were flagged down by a witness who had seen the two men get into another taxi cab and head out of Fremont. However, by the time the second cabbie was found, the suspects were gone. The stolen wallet was placed into evidence for safe keeping.

CLINIC RECEIVES THREATS:

On Oct. 10, a North Seattle mental health clinic which regularly sends out satisfaction surveys to patients received one back, anonymously, in the mail. On the questionnaire were handwritten threats such as "I will send a terrorist to your clinic," and "your clinic deserves to be destroyed." The threats referred to one doctor specifically saying "the terrorist will target you first." Police placed the three-page letter into evidence.

CLEANSER SALESMEN SUSPECTED:

On Oct. 12 at 5:33 p.m. an officer was dispatched to Phinney Ridge to check out reports of two suspicious males. A female resident of the neighborhood said the men claimed to be selling something door-to-door and one of them urinated on her neighbor's lawn. A few minutes later the officer saw one of the suspects standing on the sidewalk a few blocks away. The officer pulled over. The suspect approached the car and asked if the policeman was looking for him. The suspect said he and his companion had been selling cleaning products in the neighborhood. A van had dropped them off in the morning and would return to pick them up later in the evening. The suspect produced a brochure for the cleaning agents but not a business license to sell them. He denied that he or his companion had urinated on the lawn.

SUSPICIOUS GREETING CARD:

On Oct. 15 an officer responded to a call from a woman in her 40s about a possible Anthrax case.

A week earlier, the woman had mailed a greeting card to man she met out of town. She had only a post office box for his address.

On that day, the card had been returned to the woman's office address in Crown Hill. The woman left work, taking the card home with her to Shoreline. However, upon closer inspection of the envelope, she noticed there was a small cut in the corner - as if someone had removed the edge with a hole punch.

Suspicious, the woman opened the card over a garbage can and noticed what appeared to be a small puff of dust come out.

Thinking it might be Anthrax, the woman called the Shoreline Police but was told they would not respond because she received the letter in North Seattle. She then called the Seattle Police who, she said, would not respond because she lived in Shoreline. She called the Shoreline Police again and they advised her to soak the letter in bleach if she was concerned. On the advise of a friend, the woman finally drove the envelope back to Seattle where the police told her to leave the envelope in the garbage and watch out for flu symptoms. She was also told to contact a doctor if she was concerned and an officer disposed of her trash bags for her. (