Seattle Sun Newspaper - Vol. 8, Issue 2, February 2004
Copyright 2004 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
Robber tries, tries again:
On Sunday, Jan. 11, at about 8 p.m., a man who appeared to be in his 40s walked into a video store in Fremont. He was wearing a baseball cap, jeans, and a brown leather jacket. He had gray or white hair.
Once all the other customers in the store had left, the man approached the clerk and dropped a note on the counter. He had a hand in one pocket as if to imply that he had a gun. The clerk told the man he could see there was writing on the paper, but couldn't understand what it said. He then backed away from the counter and dialed 911. The suspect fled the scene.
About an hour later, a man fitting that same description surfaced at a Northeast Seattle video store, implying he had a gun in his pocket and demanding money from the clerk. The clerk told the suspect he was a new employee and couldn't access the cash register himself he would have to get a manager. The suspect told the clerk to forget it and left the store on foot, again empty-handed.
But the third time was a charm for this tenacious suspect. Arriving only a few minutes later at an Aurora video store, the man demanded that the clerk, a woman in her early 20s, open the cash register and check underneath for any large bills. She complied. The suspect walked out with $200, but left in his wake several video tapes of, and witnesses to, his nefarious deeds.
Delusional harasser:
On Tuesday, Jan. 13, two men in their 20s were at their Licton Springs home during lunchtime when a neighborhood woman in her late 70s began banging on their backdoor. She was carrying a bag of clothes that she said were for her daughter and grandson. She believed her two family members were prisoners in the house.
Though the roommates told the woman that her family wasn't there and that she would have to go, the woman continued banging on the doors and windows for about 15 minutes before finally taking her leave.
Such occurrences were not unusual for the occupants of that house. The woman, a concentration camp survivor who lived nearby, was suffering from a fixed delusion that her family was held captive in the house and had been harassing the residents for years. She'd already been barred from trespassing on the property and had undergone a competency hearing (after which she was apparently assigned a nurse), but it didn't seem to help.
For the roommates, the week's trials didn't end with lunch interrupted. On Thursday, one of the men received a notice that his dog had been picked up at North Seattle Community College by Animal Control. The man told police that he and his roommates always leave the dog in their enclosed backyard.
When he confronted the woman about the incident, she told him that she'd let the dog out because she thought it should be free. She refused to reimburse the man for the $45 fee. The man decided to take his dog to stay with a friend.
A police officer responded to the Licton Springs home and spoke to both the roommates and the woman. After the officer pointed out that the dog could have been hit by a car, the woman agreed not to let it out again. However, she insisted that the Animal Control bill was forged and added that one of the men had tried to have a relationship with her 10 years ago.
The officer pointed out that the man in question would have been about 12 at the time. The officer also warned the woman that she could be arrested if she went to the house again. The woman replied that she didn't care about that she had to find out if her daughter and grandson were still alive.
Loaf seller needs more bread:
The trend of suspects with heart-rending motives continued that day (Thursday, Jan. 15). A policeman was called to a Ballard supermarket at 5 a.m. When he arrived, the officer found the suspect, a man in his late 20s, detained in the store's break room.
The suspect admitted to theft. A bread supplier to the supermarket, he was responsible for keeping the shelves stocked with a certain brand and crediting the store for any unsold bread. As an independent contractor, he took a loss whenever bread was returned.
On the morning of Jan. 15, there were 37 loaves to take back, however, the suspect threw most of the bread in a dumpster and credited the supermarket for only eight. He also tried to take some Danish pastries worth $14.77.
The suspect was stopped by two store employees before he could leave. He told the officer he'd done the same thing over previous weeks and his thefts totaled about $300. He also told the officer that he was battling cancer, and had high medical bills.
The store employees said they wanted the incident documented but asked that the suspect not be booked.
Bad bet on a sublet:
Just after 3 p.m. on Jan. 15, the manager of a Ballard apartment building called the police to report a theft.
His tenant had been transferred to Germany by her employer several months ago. The tenant had sublet the apartment, which still contained her furniture and other possessions, to another woman while she was overseas.
The manager began to suspect that the subletter had stolen the tenant's things when another resident mentioned seeing the subletter and a male friend moving things out of the apartment back in October.
When confronted, the suspect claimed that she had permission remove the items, however, the manager called the victim and her family and they disagreed. The manager was unsure of exactly what had been taken, but said it was about $10,000 worth of property.
Meanwhile, the suspect hadn't been seen at the apartment building recently, and didn't return the manager's calls to her work.
Right to bear arms:
Just before 6 a.m. on Monday, Jan. 12, a man in his mid-20s walked into a crowded Northeast Seattle gym with a loaded, silver and black, semi-automatic handgun. Witnesses saw the man walking around the gym with the gun and racking the slide of the weapon. At one point, he tried to check the weapon with the receptionist.
Officers responded to the scene at 6:03 a.m. and took the suspect into custody. The suspect told police that he was being harassed by another gym user -- his gambling buddy -- and that he'd recently acquired the gun for protection.
The suspect told police that he didn't think displaying the gun in public was unusual or alarming. When police noted that checking the gun at the reception desk would not have provided him much protection from his harasser, the suspect said he didn't think that was a problem. He also said that since the gun was new he was still unfamiliar with it. The police also noted that the suspect had done a couple of stints in drug rehab. He was taken to King County Jail.