Seattle Press on Line

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By Sara Longley

Jun 15, 2000 -- On a late Tuesday night at 1:15 a.m., a Sand Point couple are surprised to see a stranger walk in through their locked apartment door. The male resident asks the stranger what he is doing in their home, to which the man replies that he is checking the doors in the complex. He leaves, and the resident follows him outside and confronts him again. The resident is joined by another witness who says he saw the stranger earlier that evening. The witness goes back inside to call the police and the suspect flees on foot. A third witness at the Sand Point 7-11 tells responding police officers that he saw the suspect exit the Sand Point complex and run northbound on Sand Point Way. Police ascertain that the apartment complex door was open and the victims' deadbolt lock was not set, so that the apartment door could be opened with a credit card. The victim assures officers that he can identify the suspect if he sees him again...

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A man driving on 25th Avenue NE on a Monday afternoon just before 4 p.m. notes that a driver ahead of him is driving erratically while talking on a cell phone. The man blinks his lights at the bad driver. When both cars stop at a red light, he asks the man "Why are you driving like this?" They engage in banter and the bad driver invites the other man to fight him. Then he takes a handgun out of his glove compartment and displays it. When the light changes, he drives away at about 15 MPH, apparently to bait the first man, who avoids further contact with the cell-phoning, gun-toting man...

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A man gathering signatures for an initiative drive stations himself outside a North Seattle Fred Meyer store on a Monday morning. The management asks him to leave, as Fred Meyer has a policy banning all petition activity from their property. The Fred Meyer management contacts police to have the man removed, and the signature gatherer also calls police to assert his "right" to be there. Both parties are advised that the police will document the incident but will make no arrests...

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Police are called to the scene of an altercation outside a clothing store on Aurora Avenue North. When officers arrive, they see several people standing around two other people. All present are arguing and yelling at each other. The officers separate the group and interview the participants.

According to the store's loss prevention officer, he watched two young men while they walked through the store. He says that they took clothing from racks and placed the garments in a white plastic bag. The security man said he also saw one of the suspects putting merchandise underneath the clothing he was already wearing. He then saw the men exit the store without paying. He says he approached the suspects and they began to assault him. He said that he was holding down one suspect while the other was kicking him.

The suspects tell a different story. They say they were walking in the store but did not steal anything. When they left, the loss prevention officer approached them but did not identify himself as store security. They say the man started assaulting them with no provocation, and they defended themselves.

Officers do not find any items belonging to the store in the possession of the two young men, and they see no items in the area around the scene of the fight...

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A Roosevelt man calls police on a Thursday morning to report a burglary. The front door of his house was unlocked overnight, but his roommate was sleeping on the living room couch. Unknown persons entered the front door and took the victim's coat and his bag. Inside the coat were the victim's car keys and wallet. The burglar used the car keys to enter the victim's car, which he or she prowled through. After all this, the only property taken was $100 cash from the victim's wallet...

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A construction site in Ballard is vandalized by two young boys on a Friday evening after workers leave for the weekend. The site superintendent catches one boy hiding on the site, but does not see the damage at that time and lets the boy go after he gets his name and address. Monday morning, the superintendent discovers that there are initials carved in a 10' x 10' concrete slab that had been poured on Friday, and three other slabs are damaged by bicycle tire tracks across them. He calls police to report the vandalism. Another witness reports seeing a second boy riding away on Friday at the same time the first boy was caught. As the boys are both about 9 years old, officers attempt to contact the parents of the first boy at his nearby address. Nobody is home...

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A car is prowled in North Seattle over a Sunday night/Monday morning time period. Two French horns, one silver and one gold, are taken...

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A man goes shopping at a Wallingford grocery store at 12:50 a.m. on a Tuesday morning. He is recognized by a store employee as a person who has attempted to purchase beer for minors in the past. The employee keeps an eye on the man, who bags his groceries by himself and heads for the exit without paying.

The employee confronts the man and tells him he's not leaving until he pays for the groceries. The suspect states that he is not going to pay and that he is leaving. The employee states that he is going to call police. The suspect puts his groceries down and waits for police. Officers take the would-be shoplifter into custody...

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