By Cassandra Baker

12:15 a.m., May 9. 22nd block of NW 58th St

Video surveillance caught a woman breaking into an apartment building and stealing a computer hard drive and … a mop bucket. The suspect gained entry by breaking a key fob lock on the building, then entered the conference room and used the computer. When the suspect had finished, she broke the computer off of its wall mount and stole the hard drive. She then grabbed a mop bucket and fled the building.

The surveillance video showed that the crime occurred between 11:15 p.m. and 12:15 a.m. The suspect appeared to be a white female in her early 20s. No staff at the apartment building recognized her.

1:47 a.m., March 7. 52nd block of Ballard Ave NW

A bar employee called police after a man threw a fire extinguisher at his girlfriend outside the bar. The complainant said that he had just closed the bar and gone outside with his girlfriend when they observed two intoxicated males across the street. One of them was carrying a fire extinguisher. Both males crossed the street, and the complainant said that the one with the fire extinguisher came right up to him and his girlfriend and pointed the hose of the fire extinguisher at them.

The complainant and his girlfriend tried to convince the man to leave, but he did not, and when the two tried to walk away from him, he threw the fire extinguisher at them. The hose or handle hit the victim on the head, giving her a headache.

The victim and complainant described the suspect with the fire extinguisher as a white male, age 30, 6’0” tall with brown hair and wearing a blue jacket and dark pants. The other male is described as white, age 30, bald and wearing a black baseball cap, dark jacket, and white pants. Neither man was found in the area. The responding officer suspected that the fire extinguisher had been stolen from a nearby bar, but all of the bars had closed by the time he was able to search the area.

4:26 p.m., March 6. 6th block of NW 85th St

Neighboring residences on 6th Ave NW and NW 85th St were burglarized on March 6. One of the victims said he left his house at around 11:00 a.m. and returned at about 4:26 p.m. that afternoon to find his back door kicked in. The suspect had ransacked the house and stolen two laptops.

At almost exactly the same time, a man called police to report that his neighbor’s residence had been burglarized sometime between 2:30 p.m. and 4:00 p.m. that day. The complainant lives above the victim, and when he went downstairs, he saw that the victim’s door had been kicked in. The residence was ransacked. The Homeowner’s Association leader for the building said that the victim was frequently out of town.

While the officer who responded to the second burglary was completing his report, he received a call from the victim, who had returned home and made a list of items that had been stolen: two laptops, a tablet, two digital cameras, an iPhone, and about $3,000 worth of jewelry. The victim had also found a camera that didn’t belong to her. The officer spoke to the neighbor who had been burglarized and found that the camera was his.

3:19 a.m., March 5. 85th block of 15th Ave NW

A known metal thief was arrested on March 5. Police received a call requesting that a trespasser be removed from a Ballard property at 3:19 a.m. but did not initially respond to the scene. An hour later, at 4:18 a.m., the complainant called again to say that he was at the location watching a security camera, which showed the suspect and another suspect stealing numerous items from the property.

At this point several officers responded to the scene and found a male within the gated area of the property. The suspect was scavenging through bins and crates of recyclable material including computers, metal and wire. The area has a sign outside reading “No Scavenging.”

One of the officers identified herself to the suspect, who said “Uh oh” and set down the metal cup he had been holding. He cooperated with police and admitted that he had entered the area through a hole in the gate and knew he shouldn’t be there.

The suspect was arrested for investigation of burglary, and when he was searched, police found wire cutters, a screwdriver, and a small knife on his person. He was identified as a known thief who is associated with an orange van that is often parked in the area and has also been linked to recent metal thefts from the same location. The van was in the area at the time of the incident, but the owner of the van was not inside.

Police located the suspect’s backpack, which contained heroin, drug paraphernalia, a wallet with ID that wasn’t his, and a large pair of bolt cutters. The suspect was booked in King County Jail for investigation of burglary and drug violations. The second suspect was not located, but police believe him to be the owner of the orange van.

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