Prowl of the week
A door lock was punched the morning of Aug. 17 to get into a Chevy van while it was parked in a lot in the 400 block of Fifth Ave. N., and a Nikon digital lens worth $500 was stolen.
Also taken were a camera case worth $150, a Canon manual, three pairs of Levis and 40 collectible Zippo lighters worth $700 altogether. There was a clue. A can of Coca-Cola Zero apparently fell out of the van and was put back inside by the prowler, according to the victims. The can was placed into evidence for fingerprinting.
Thefts
z A cable used to secure an electric bike to a concrete structure at the rear of an apartment building in the 500 block of Fourth Ave. W. was cut overnight Aug. 17.
The Schwinn Stealth 1000 bike was subsequently stolen, but the perp left the charger behind, according to the victim, who said the battery will die after 10 miles. He also told police the bike has Bell head and taillights and that a zip tie had been used to attach a cup holder.
z A man who lives in the 1200 block of Queen Anne Ave. N. had let a woman he knows stay with him for a couple of weeks recently, but it didn't work out too well.
The woman had eventually become difficult to live with, and she finally lost it on Aug. 17, when she used a foot-and-a-half-long aluminum bat to threaten the man and to damage a wall in his apartment, according to the report.
Then she took off, leaving several unpacked bags of stuff behind. But the man called police because he's convinced that when she left, the woman also made off with two cell phones belonging to him.
Obsessive conduct
Staffers at a hotel in the 700 block of Fifth Ave. N. have a real problem on their hands with a Queen Anne man in his mid-40s. Seems he caused a ruckus at the place on Aug. 5 by trying to use a bad credit card, and his treatment by staffers has apparently been gnawing at him every since.
According to an Aug. 13 report, his solution was to call the hotel numerous times on Aug. 12 and 13, pretending to be police and his own lawyer. That didn't work out, though, because a manager in the place recognized the guy's voice and now wants press charges against the obsessive fellow for phone harassment.
Police advised the manager to get an anti-harassment/no-contact order filed, instead, and to keep a log of any future calls the jerk makes. It's not the first time the man has been a pest.
The report notes he's had "NUMEROUS Anti-harassment/No Contact Orders served on him" in the past. It also turns out the man has an arrest warrant out on him for theft.
Oops
z A Port Orchard man messed up the night of Aug. 16 and lost his wallet when he left it in a taxi that dropped him off in the 2100 block of Queen Anne Ave. N.
The wallet - which didn't stay lost long - contained identification, three credit cards, a bunch of gift cards and $80 in cash, according to a report the man filed two days later. The report also notes one of his credit cards was used Aug. 17 and 18 at a gas station for unknown amounts of money.
z Another visitor from out of town, this time Idaho, spaced out and left his debit card in a Seattle Center ATM around noon on Aug. 16. The card was used to withdraw $270 from the man's account, according to an Aug. 18 report.
Burglaries
z A $2,100 Dell laptop was stolen from a fifth-floor office in a high-security office complex in the 300 block of Elliott Ave. W. sometime between 2 p.m. Aug. 16 and 7:50 a.m. Aug. 18.
A lockbox was broken to get access to a keycard, which was used to ride an elevator to the fifth floor, where the office door was forced open, according to the report. A key to the roof was also stolen from the lockbox, but the roof lock has since been changed and the keycard has been deactivated, as well.
On an up note, the laptop is equipped with "Computrace," a tracking device that will signal the computer's location if it's used.
z A woman who lives in the 300 block of W. Dravus St. suddenly woke up around 6:15 in the morning Aug. 16 to the sound of some guy removing a screen from an open window at her place. She figures the man was trying to steal a laptop on a table by the window, but she asked him what he was doing, anyway.
The guy said he was looking for someone whose name is blacked out in the censored report, but he left when the woman said that person didn't live there, according to the report. The woman told police the would-be burglar looked ordinary and could pass as a college student.
She also called Seattle Pacific University security, which looked for and found a man in the area who kind of matched the perp's description. But that guy looked out of place and could not be described as looking like a student, according to the security guard. So the guard cut him loose and told him to stay off campus.
Domestic terror
A transient in his late 30s who's an alleged meth head went berserk shortly before noon Aug. 19, raged at his grandmother and attacked an aunt in the grandmother's Queen Anne home, according to a police report.
The guy had been crashed out at the house for three days, and his rage was prompted when granny woke him up so she could clean the room. His reaction was allegedly to trash the bedroom, and to yell and cuss at his grandmother, who retreated to the living room, where the woman in her late 80s said she was calling the cops.
The guy would have none of that, though, and broke the phone before he headed downstairs to the basement, which he also trashed, according to the report.
Then the man allegedly attacked his aunt by: pushing her down on a bed, grabbing her by the throat, stabbing her leg with the sharp end of a brass coat hanger he'd torn off a door, cussing at her and threatening to kill her.
The maniac finally left when the aunt's daughter managed to call 911 on a cell phone, and he stole a kid's bike he used to ride away that Tuesday. Police were unable to locate the man, and both the grandmother and aunt were convinced he'd be back. The aunt was also afraid her nephew would carry out his threat to kill her, according to the police report.
Elder-scamming
A Magnolia couple in their 80s who live on 30th Avenue West was ripped off by a scammer on Aug. 5, something their daughter found out about when she was going through their finances on Aug. 21.
The way it went down, the woman in the couple was doing some yard work when the scammer walked up and offered to do the work for a cheap rate, saying her plants needed to be cut away from the sidewalk.
She agreed, and 45 minutes later the guy pushed his way into the house, said the work was done and insisted that the woman owed him $49. The woman didn't think the work was worth that much after she took a look and said so.
Faced with a recalcitrant mark, the conman changed his strategy by asking the woman for a Band-Aid for his cut finger. And while she was getting it, the guy talked to the woman's husband and convinced the man he and his wife owed a whopping $495 for the job.
The husband- who suffers from Alzheimer's and didn't realize what was going - cut a check for the scammer, who quickly scurried to the couple's bank and cashed it, according to the police report.
The couple's daughter also called the News to report the fraud and to warn readers that the scammer was obviously working in the Magnolia neighborhood.
The daughter added that she even Googled the guy and found out that someone who has the same name and description was written up in one of the dailies in 2000 for bullying elderly homeowners into paying outrageous amounts of money for yard work the victims didn't even order in some cases.
Whether it's the same guy or not, the police report lists a Des Moines address for the conman who scammed the Magnolia couple, along with his driver's license number.
Fraudster action
A Queen Anne woman called police Aug. 18 to report she'd been the victim of credit-card fraud, something she found out about that Monday when she got a call from a collection agency.
An agency staffer first asked the woman to verify her Everett address and then enquired as to why she hadn't paid her Capital One credit-card bill.
The woman does have a Capital One card, but she doesn't live in Everett and told the collection agency folks she'd paid her credit-card bill on Aug. 8. Turns out that there were two credit cards out on the woman's account, which was a total surprise to her.
The report notes the collection company wasn't going after the Queen Anne woman for payment, but she called police anyway in case the fraudster continues to use her personal information for criminal purposes.
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