Police arrested a 36-year-old man at University Village on Tuesday after he stopped three different people in the area and demanded they hand over their car keys, with little success.
The man, riding a ride-share bicycle, first approached a woman in the 4500 block of Sand Point Way at 6:30 PM. He claimed he’d been struck by a vehicle, demanded the woman get out of her car, and tried to grab her cell phone.
The woman climbed into the passenger seat of her car to get away from the man, who walked around to the driver’s side door, entered the car, pushed against the woman, reached around the interior of the car as if he was searching for a purse, and then appeared to look around the dashboard as if he was trying to figure out how to start the vehicle.
The woman pushed the suspect out of her car and told him she was calling 911. “No, I’m going to call 911,” the man responded, and tried to take the woman’s phone.
She was able to push the suspect out of her car and lock her doors. The suspect fled back to his bicycle and rode away.
The suspect then rode to a grocery store in the 3000 block of Northeast 45th Street and approached a man, who was sitting in his vehicle. The suspect again claimed he needed the driver’s car keys, but quickly fled after he was startled by a bystander.
Finally, the suspect rode up to a woman at University Village and demanded her car keys. When she refused, the man rode away again.
He was arrested a short time later and booked into the King County Jail for robbery.