It may have taken a few months, but a suspect from a July 2012 iPhone theft downtown is now behind bars in the King County Jail.
On July 17th, 2012, at around 7:30 pm, a woman reported that she had been walking near 6th Avenue and Pine Street, talking on her Apple iPhone, with an attached headset. She stated she was holding the phone in her left hand when an unknown, adult black male approached her from behind and ripped the phone from her hand. Fortunately the victim was not injured.
After the suspect took the phone, he ran northbound on 7th Avenue. The victim attempted to run after him, but could not catch him. She began yelling that her phone had just been taken. A witness saw the suspect running toward her and saw a car pull up to the curb next to her. The suspect jumped into the front passenger seat of the waiting car. A white female with blonde hair was driving the car.
The witness attempted to stop the car, but the driver accelarated and took off southbound on 7th Avenue at a high rate of speed. However, the witness was able to get the license plate number.
Detectives checked the license plate with Washington State Department of Licensing and located the registered owner of the car. It was determined that the daughter of the car’s owner regularly drives that car.
In early August detectives paid a visit to the daughter and obtained a statement. She identified her 21-year-old boyfriend as the suspect. A photo montage was assembled and witnesses picked out the suspect.
Over the next several months, detectives attempted to locate the suspect, but he remained elusive. Yesterday, April 1st, detectives learned that the suspect was scheduled to appear in Superior Court at the Regional Justice Center in Kent for an unrelated separate incident. At the conclusion of that hearing, the suspect was arrested by detectives. He confessed to his involvement in the July theft and was later booked into the King County Jail for Investigation of Theft.