Seattle Sun Newspaper - Vol. 7, Issue 5, May 2003
Copyright 2003 Seattle Sun. Please feel free to use the article and photos below in your research. Be sure to quote the Seattle Sun as your source.
Cops n' Robbers
By LEAH WEATHERSBY
Home invasion in Ballard:
On Easter Sunday, April 20, at 10:45 a.m., a woman in her 50s was in the kitchen of her Ballard home when she heard a rattle at her front door. The woman went to answer it but there was no one in sight. She went back to the kitchen, located at the rear of the house.
A few minutes later the back door, which had been left slightly ajar, burst open and two men who appeared to be in their 30s entered the house.
One of the suspects guarded the woman, covering her eyes. He told her that if she didn't look at them she wouldn't be hurt. The second suspect, apparently believing that the woman grew marijuana, asked her where she kept the drugs. She told him she didn't have any.
The suspect searched the main floor and the basement. Finding nothing, he climbed into the attic crawl space and began checking there as well. While he was over the kitchen, his foot punched through the ceiling, making a 3 feet by 5 feet hole and causing an estimated $3,000 in damage. Finally, he gave up and left the house, though he said he knew the drugs were somewhere inside. The second man also left, telling the woman he would be right back.
After several minutes, the woman ran to a neighbor's house and called the police. The suspects had taken her cell phone, she said, and the house phone didn't work. Police later located the cell phone and noted that the house's phone line had been cut.
Soon after officers arrived on the scene, one of the suspects was spotted. Police chased him on foot through yards and an alley. Though he escaped momentarily by scaling a fence, he was finally arrested only a few blocks from the scene of the crime.
Out of gas in Broadview:
On Monday, April 21, a male employee in his 40s arrived at his job at the Broadview Library at 6 a.m. when he noticed a suspicious-looking man. The man appeared to be in his 30s, was of medium height, slender, and had missing teeth. He seemed high or intoxicated. The man left the scene in a Cadillac.
Three hours later, when the employee when to gas up a library van, he found that the vehicle's fuel line had been cut and that about 15 gallons of gas had been lost or stolen.
Joy Ride?
Just after 12:30 a.m. on Monday, April 21, an officer was patrolling the Wedgwood neighborhood when he noticed a white Chrysler, which seemed to be exceeding the speed limit by at least 10 miles per hour. The officer began pacing the car and confirmed that it was going more than 40 miles an hour in a 25 mile-per-hour zone. Although the Chrysler drove over several speed bumps, it didn't slow down. The bottom of the car nearly scraped the pavement.
The officer turned on his lights and pulled the Chrysler over. Inside the car he found a teenage boy (the driver) and another man in his 20s.
The driver acknowledged that he'd been going fast. He seemed nervous; his hands were shaking and he was reluctant to make eye contact. When asked for his driver's license, he told the officer he didn't have one. Neither man knew whom the vehicle belonged to.
A backup officer arrived and took the older man into custody. The first officer searched the teenager and felt some kind of metal object in his jacket pocket.
"It's the screwdriver," the teen said.
"What screwdriver?" The officer asked.
"The one I used to start the car with," he replied.
Once in the patrol car, the suspect admitted that he'd stolen the Chrysler about half an hour before, but said his companion had nothing to do with it. (The officer noted the passenger would have had a clear view of the missing ignition.) The officer took the teen back to his parents' house where he admitted that he and his friend had stolen the car together. The police were unable to contact the Chrysler's owner.
On the run (to Dick's):
On Thursday, April 17, at 2 a.m., officers were following a Volvo on N. 105th Street. As the car headed west onto Holman Road, they noticed it was straddling the lane divider. Checking the license plate, they saw that the registered owner, a man in his 30s, had a suspended license. They immediately pulled the car over.
"Did you know your license was suspended?" The officer asked.
"Actually, yes. I did," said the man.
The officer asked why the man was driving. He explained he just wanted to get to Dick's Drive-In before it closed. The man was arrested and taken to the King County Jail.
Charge!:
On Monday, April 21, Fremont residents called Police after 10 p.m. to report loud talking and arguing on the steps of a neighborhood church.
When officers arrived at the scene around 10:30, they found two men and a woman sitting on the church steps drinking beer. Many empty cans were strewn around and the three appeared to be extremely intoxicated. They were also angry that the police had been summoned and made hostile comments to the officers.
The police decided to let the suspects off with warning and released them. However, as they were leaving the church one of the men suddenly stopped about 10 feet from the officers and turned to confront them, scowling. He crouched into a fighting stance, balled his hands into fists, and charged towards a policewoman at a fast walking pace.
The officers acted quickly to subdue the man, who was then transported to the King County Jail.
Flier feud:
At 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, April 16, police received calls from two feuding neighbors in Ravenna. The neighbors in question, a woman in her 40s and a man in his 50s, each accused the other of a long list of transgressions. The most recent incident had been caused by a sales flier left by a paper carrier.
The two neighbors share a stairway to the street, and apparently the flier had been left on the woman's side. She found it and threw it on to the other side of the walk. Then the man's housemate tossed the flier back into the woman's space. She responded by moving it to her neighbors' porch.
The men again retaliated by throwing it on to the woman's yard.
The neighbors began a verbal dispute, during which the woman claimed the man shoved her and said "I could beat the (expletive) out of you." The man contended he'd tried to push her out of the yard and only said "I'm not going to take your (expletive) anymore."
Officers left a card with each complainant.