On June 24th, a South Precinct patrol officer stopped a vehicle occupied with known burglary suspects. The officer observed several electronics inside the car. The occupants denied ownership of the items. South Precinct detectives interviewed one of the occupants who admitted to committing four area burglaries. He also stated that he and other burglary suspects would routinely sell their stolen laptops to a computer parts business in the 7600 block of Rainier Avenue South, where they would then sell the stolen merchandise on various Internet sites.
On 6/25/09 South Precinct Detectives served a search warrant on the business looking for a specific stolen laptop computer. The detectives found hundreds of laptop computers lined up on bookshelves, several hundred hard drives along with numerous digital cameras, I-Pods, games systems, cell phones and other electronics. The detectives ran the serial numbers or owner applied numbers on ten of the laptops. Seven of the laptops were reported stolen in area burglaries. The business had no paperwork, receipts or other documentation commonly found in a retail business. The business was secured until the warrant could be amended.
On 6/26/09 South Precinct Detectives served an amended search warrant on the computer parts business, the owner’s home and his storage unit. Over 600 laptop computers were seized along with hundreds of other electronic equipment.
The South Precinct Detective’s Unit will be cataloging each of the seized items over the next several days. Some of the victims of these burglaries have already been contacted and told about their recovered property.
The precinct requests that other potential victims wait at least a week before contacting the unit to see if their property was among the found items.