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By Sara Longley

Jan 31, 2002 -- Three Ballard residents and a guest from out of town are at home in their Ballard apartment on New Year's Eve. The younger man and his uncle, who is actually only two years older, get into an argument about the uncle's lifestyle. The nephew wants his uncle to "clean up his life," stop drinking and drugging and turn himself in on his warrant. The uncle is drunk, which is one of the things that started the argument. While they argue, the uncle's small dog begins rooting in the garbage and the nephew smacks it on the head to chastise it. His uncle becomes enraged and grabs the nephew by the throat, choking him. They start wrestling, and a large potted plant is knocked over. The out-of-town guest comes to the rescue of the nephew, separating the combatants. The uncle goes to the kitchen and swings back around with a steak knife in his hand. He rushes at his nephew, yelling, "I'll stick you!" The nephew backs out of the way of the charge, and the uncle falls to the floor, slamming into a low table and breaking its leg. The guest calls 911 at this point, but the uncle leaves before police arrive. The other two people present watch and confirm the events for police. Officers are unable to locate the man and his dog in the area. The nephew is very upset about the incident, and says he has tried to help his uncle for years but to no avail. There is already a no-bail warrant out for the uncle...

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An elderly man is unloading items into his car in the parking lot of a store on Aurora Avenue N at 6:30 p.m. on a Saturday. He is hit on the back of the head by an unknown assailant, and loses consciousness. When he wakes up, it is 9:30 p.m. and he is inside his car. He discovers that his wallet has been taken...

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Between New Year's Eve and the following Saturday, someone places a ladder outside the second-story window of a University District fraternity residence. The suspect climbs up the ladder and enters the bedroom through the window. Leaving no evidence, the suspect steals $50 in Canadian currency and a Compaq laptop computer with the name Geittmann written in gold letters on the side...

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A North Seattle woman calls 911 to report a burglary at 8 a.m. on a Sunday, but due to heavy call volume she is told to call the police non-emergency number instead. Later that same day, she experiences a medical emergency and again calls 911. When the fire department responds, they learn of the burglary and discover that there is a broken window and the house will be left open when they remove the woman to hospital. They determine that the best thing would be to secure the window, but since no police investigation of the burglary has taken place, they hesitate to destroy potential evidence. Police are called by the Fire Department and arrive to assess the scene. They believe that the would-be burglar was scared away by the resident, who was at home at the time of the burglary. There were no apparent signs of theft or damage inside the home, so they leave followup paper work for the woman to complete when she comes home from the hospital...

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Employees of a Ballard restaurant call police at 6:25 p.m. on a Sunday to complain of a woman snoring in a toilet stall. When the officer responds, the woman is still passed out sitting on the toilet. Restaurant employees report that her two dinner companions have left while she was in the bathroom, saying that she would pay the bill for the three of them. One of them even provided a slip of paper with his name, address and a phone number on it before leaving. The officer wakes the woman up and asks her if she has money to pay the bill. She says she does not, and that one of the men she ate with had told her he would pay. She is very intoxicated, and explains, "I'm an alcoholic." She admits that she doesn't know the man very well. The officer calls the number provided by the other diner, but gets a recording. He leaves a message saying that criminal charges of theft would be filed unless somebody returns to pay the bill. The woman says she understands, and she is given a restaurant card with a note stating that she owes $66.99. Her name is checked for outstanding warrants, and finding none, the officer releases her...

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A man's wallet is stolen while he is inside a North Seattle mall on a Sunday evening. He immediately calls his credit card company to report the theft, and he is informed that a charge was just made at a sports apparel shop in the mall. The young man bought two pairs of shoes and a pair of shorts. The clerk in the store recognized him from school and chatted with him as he rang up the sale. He didn't check the card since he knows the customer. Police take the report, and the clerk gives them the name of the suspect, saying that he can easily identify the thief again...

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A woman drinks with a strange man in a bar on Greenwood on a Monday evening. They talk for a few hours, then take a bus down to the intersection of 15th Avenue NW and NW Market Street. There, they decide to eat at one of the nearby fast food restaurants. As they walk through the back parking lot, the man throws the woman to the ground and takes her purse. He leaves walking westbound. The purse contains various makeup items...

A woman is sleeping soundly at 3:47 a.m. on a Saturday morning when she hears a loud crash from her kitchen. When she investigates, she finds her kitchen window broken. She calls 911, but police find nothing suspicious in the area, and are not able to determine what was used to break the window...

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Police respond to a burglary in progress at an auto dealership/repair shop in Ballard at 10:49 p.m. on a Saturday. The man gained access to the building by breaking windows on the garage door with a three-foot metal pole. Police observe him getting into the drivers seat of a convertible in the dealership garage. Then he gets back out and urinates on the rear tire of the car. He then walks around inside the garage for a while, and after sitting in the car again, he exits through the window where he came in. Police apprehend him at this point and book him into jail...

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"Upper Fremont" residents return home after a vacation to find a window in their basement broken and their house burglarized. Missing are a DVD player, a CD player, speakers, two bottles of wine and several CDs. Police dust for prints around the damaged window and are able to lift three latent prints, which are submitted to evidence...

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