Seattle Sun Newspaper - Vol. 7, Issue 12, December 2003

Copyright 2003 Seattle Sun. Please feel free to use the article below in your research. Be sure to cite the Seattle Sun as your source.

Cops 'n Robbers

By LEAH WEATHERSBY

Drug store vs. dumpster divers:

On the afternoon of Nov. 6, an employee of the Rite Aid store at N. 130th Street and Aurora Avenue was outside having a cigarette break when she saw a man going through a nearby trash receptacle, picking out discarded license plates. (The license plates were likely disposed of near the store since it's close to a Department of Motor Vehicles office.)

The woman asked the suspect what he was doing. The suspect, who was middle-aged, had feathered blond hair, and was wearing a dirty flannel shirt and blue jeans, said, "It's OK, I'm a cop. I'm taking these license plates to the precinct."

"Well I'm Rite Aid," the woman said, and asked the man to hand over the plates.

"No, it's OK, I'm a cop," he insisted.

The woman demanded the plates again, saying she would turn them into the precinct.

"You'll do that?" The man asked. Then he gave her the plates, and got into a turquoise or green paneled van that was packed nearby.

A few minutes later, an emaciated woman with stringy hair climbed out of the van and approached the employee, asking for $48 for an asthma inhaler.

When the employee said she was going to call the police the woman ran back to the van and it drove off.

Butts on the patio:

At 3 p.m. on Nov. 6, a Haller Lake woman in her 20s called the police to report that her neighbor, a man in his 20s, was harassing her.

The woman told the responding officer that earlier that day her neighbor had been pounding on her door and jiggling the doorknob. When she opened the door, the man got in her face, yelling at her for throwing cigarette butts from her balcony on to his property.

"You and I have a problem and we're going to deal with it right now," the man allegedly said to the woman. She took these words as a threat and refused to continue the discussion.

The woman said her neighbor yelled at her some more from below her balcony and she saw that he was standing next to her car.

A little while later, an alarm went off in the woman's building due to some construction nearby. Once outside, the woman noticed that her car had been keyed. She acknowledged that she hadn't seen her neighbor vandalize the vehicle, and added that someone who'd been pressure washing nearby could have done the damage.

However, she still became irate when the officer said he couldn't arrest the neighbor because there were no witnesses.

"So it's OK if I threaten others and key their car, too?" The woman asked. (The officer replied that if someone saw her do it she'd be arrested for property damage.)

The officer then went next door to talk to the neighbor, but found that the young man was away at school. Instead, he talked to the suspect's mother who showed the officer a cigarette burn on the canopy of her patio swing. She claimed a cigarette butt falling off her neighbor's balcony earlier that day had caused the burn.

She added that her son would never do anything like keying a car.

When the officer walked back by the balcony, he saw the woman and her roommates outside smoking, and noted that their ashtray was sitting on the railing directly over the neighbors' patio furniture.

One of the roommates seemed angry at the officer's suggestion that they move the ashtray, but they complied. When the officer asked the woman about the burn mark on her neighbor's patio furniture, the woman said the burn was old.

Jewelry (& candy) snatcher:

On Nov. 6, sometime between 8 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. a suspect or suspects broke into a Ballard home by climbing up on a lawn chair and breaking a bedroom window. The thief or thieves swiped several pieces of gold jewelry was well as a watch valued at $150.

Before leaving, they enjoyed half a beer and ate some Halloween candy that had been sitting out in a glass dish. The investigating officer also noticed bike tracks in the victims' lawn.

While the officer was at the scene she was approached by the victims' next-door neighbor. The neighbor, who had returned home at about 5 p.m., said she and a female companion had seen a man on a bicycle (described in the police report as a "ratty, old hippie of medium build") come out from between her house and the victims' house. The man stared at the women menacingly and then pedaled off.

The police were able to lift partial fingerprints from the candy dish.

Halloween knife wielder:

Just after 2 a.m. on Nov. 1, police officers were patrolling the area of NE 47th Street and Brooklyn Avenue on bicycles when they were accosted by a distraught woman in her 20s who said a man had just "pulled a knife on her and her friend."

She indicated that he was still sitting in a white Jeep across the street. The officers approached the Jeep and spoke to the suspect, a man in his 20s, and another woman in the vehicle who was around the same age.

After patting down the suspect, the police asked him if there was knife in the car and he indicated that the weapon (an 11-inch butcher knife) was in the glove compartment.

The woman who was in the car said that she and her friends (one male, one female) had met the suspect at a Green Lake Halloween party and he had offered them a ride home. En route, the suspect had pulled the knife out the of the glove compartment, saying, "Look what they wouldn't let me take into the party." He added that he was portraying a movie character and the knife was an integral part of the costume. Still driving, he clenched the knife between his teeth.

The passengers asked the suspect to put the knife away and he set it on the Jeep's console. When the suspect stopped for a traffic light, one of the women said she was sick. She jumped out of the car and ran to call the police. The male passenger followed her.

The suspect pulled over and parked nearby.

The suspect submitted to a portable breath test for alcohol that showed he was over the legal limit. He was arrested for unlawful use of a weapon and booked into the King County Jail.

Car thief gone AWOL:

On Friday, Nov. 7, at 11:35 a.m., police officers responded to an Aurora Avenue car dealership to officially recover a black SUV that had been stolen earlier in the week and recently found in Kent.

The officers were able to lift numerous fingerprints from boxes and envelopes left in the car, as well as from the vehicle itself.

That afternoon, after the officers had left, an employee from the dealership called the precinct with new information. She said that her co-workers had mentioned a suspicious employee who'd quit the Friday before after only working at the dealership one week. Apparently he left saying the dealership did not pay him enough. He now lives in Kent.

The woman also remembered a phone call she'd received about the ex-employee from a military staff sergeant a week earlier. The sergeant had wanted to know the whereabouts of the suspect, saying he'd recently gone AWOL after being called up to serve in Iraq.