The following are selected reports from the Seattle Police Department. They represent the officers’ accounts of the events described.
LESCHI: BREAK-IN
A woman was pulling out of her driveway at 9:45 a.m. on Aug. 5 when she heard an alarm sounding at a neighbor’s home in the 900 block of 30th Avenue South. She saw that a rear door had been shattered and open, so she called police.
The woman waited in the 2900 block of South Charles Street until police arrived. She did not see anyone or anything suspicious at the burgled home while she waited.
Police spoke with one of the homeowners over the phone. He called his wife, who responded to the home.
The wife determined that only a $3,000 digital camera was stolen.
No fingerprints were found.
MOVING OUT
Someone broke into a vacant home in the 700 block of Lake Washington Boulevard at 12:30 p.m. on Aug. 1 and stole appliances.
The homeowners said they had recently bought the home through foreclosure. A lawyer told them that the previous homeowner needed 20 days to remove items that weren’t permanent fixtures, such as furniture; the deadline was Aug. 8.
On the day of the police report, one of the new homeowners went to the home to watch the Blue Angels perform. She saw a moving truck and four men sitting in front of the home, drinking beer. Thinking they were moving items for the former homeowners, she left.
She returned later that day to find a side door damaged as if it had been forced open. She then saw that all of the built-in appliances were missing, as were custom light fixtures and the face from a gas fireplace.
Beds, a couch and floor lamps were still in the house.
A bottle of beer and a can of chewing tobacco were left on the kitchen counter. These were collected for fingerprints.
RATTLING NERVES
A resident in the 600 block of 33rd Avenue heard his dog barking and his front gate opening at 5:45 a.m. on Aug. 14. He thought it was the paperboy so he went downstairs, only to see the knob to the side door rattling.
He looked up to see two male suspects trying his door handle. He yelled loudly for them to leave, and they ran off.
The resident then ran out to the front yard and saw the suspects leave in a car down East James Street.
He said he didn’t get a good look at the suspects because they ran off so quickly.
Nothing was damaged or stolen. No fingerprints were recovered.
BIKE BURGLARY
Police responded to the 500 block of 28th Avenue to investigate a report of a bike stolen from a garage at 3:50 p.m. on Aug. 17.
According to the police report, the resident opened his garage around 3:30 p.m. and then went back inside to prepare for a bike ride. He looked out his window about 20 minutes later to see a teenage boy riding the resident’s bike down the driveway. The suspect was wearing the resident’s bike helmet, too.
The resident yelled after the suspect, “That’s my bike — stop!” He chased him down the street and then east onto East Cherry Street before losing sight of him.
Nothing else was stolen or damaged during the burglary.
MADISON PARK: STOLEN SAFE
The manager of a restaurant in the 1800 block of 42nd Avenue East called police around 10:45 a.m. on Aug. 5 after learning from other employees that it had been burglarized overnight.
The doors were locked when it closed at 10 p.m. the previous evening. But staff arrived that morning to find the back door unlocked.
A safe, which contained $374 cash and credit-card receipts from the previous day, was stolen. The $1,000 worth of wine near the safe and the cash register were untouched.
There were no signs of forced entry, and the front door was undamaged.
The manager doesn’t suspect anyone of the burglary.
A shelf, which would need to be removed to access the safe, was taken for fingerprints, along with a vase that had been on the shelf.
MADISON VALLEY: MUGGING
A woman was walking toward home in the 2700 block of East John Street around 2:45 a.m. on Aug. 5 when she was knocked sideways and her backpack was snatched off her shoulder.
The bag contained her wallet with miscellaneous credit cards, an iPhone and house keys.
The woman provided a general description of the suspect to police.
The responding officer drove the woman home, where the officer made sure no one else was inside.
The woman wasn’t injured in the incident.
STOLEN WINE
Someone broke into a business in the 2700 block of East Madison Street between 11:50 a.m. Aug. 2 and 6:45 a.m. Aug. 3 and stole 15 several bottles of wine. Nothing else was taken.
The rear door had been kicked in.
ARMED ROBBERY
A woman was sitting on a bench at 24th Avenue East and East Harrison Street around 10:20 p.m. on Aug. 13 when two men approached her. One of them pointed a gun at her face and demanded her belongings.
She began to scream, but the gunman threatened to shoot her if she continued. He then told her to empty her pockets.
The woman handed over her backpack and her mobile phone; she said she had nothing else.
The suspects grabbed her belongings and told her not to look at them as they left southbound on 24th Avenue. They left the area in a car that had been parked outside her home nearby.
The woman, who was injured, was visibly upset and worried that the suspects might return with her house keys.
MADRONA: SURPRISED TWICE
Police responded to the 3600 block of East Union Street, where a house cleaner reported seeing a man on her client’s back porch, looking through the windows, at 10:20 a.m. on Aug. 5.
The suspect saw her looking at him, so he waved. He then climbed off the deck, ran to the side yard and waved again, before running away.
The suspect had entered through two unlocked gates and scaled a fence to get to the deck.
While the police were investigating this incident, a suspect wearing similar clothing was seen inside an occupied home in the 800 block of 32nd Avenue, five blocks away around 11 a.m.
In that incident, the resident heard someone inside his house. He went to the living room, where he saw the suspect grab a laptop computer from a table. He yelled at the suspect, who turned and ran out the front door.
The resident followed the suspect until East Marion Street. He then went home to call police.
He told police that the suspect appeared surprised and startled when the resident confronted him.
Police believe the same suspect committed both crimes.
SHOPLIFTER
A man tried to leave a store along Martin Luther King Jr. Way around 1:55 p.m. on Aug. 3 with clothing concealed in his pants and in a bag he was carrying.
When four store employees confronted him, the suspect started flailing his arms and elbows to prevent them from grabbing him. The suspect then dropped the bag, which contained a shirt and a pair of shorts.
The suspect pulled out a knife and began swinging at the employees, who backed away.
He then ran off northbound, with the employees chasing him. They lost track of them, but responding officers found him at 30th Avenue and East Pike Street.
The man was taken into custody and brought back to the store, where employees identified him. He was then arrested.