A stolen motorcycle and a pile of backpacks left outside a Queen Anne grocery store led police to an apparent trafficking ring in Eastlake Thursday.
Around 4:30 am on January 16th, a training officer and a student officer were out on patrol in the West Precinct, when they spotted a pile of backpacks lying next to a motorcycle, parked near Queen Anne Avenue N. and W. Crockett Street. Officers thought the bike and bags looked a bit suspicious, so they checked out the bike and discovered they had been stolen off another motorcycle in the East Precinct. They also found a filed-down key in the motorcycle’s ignition. It turned out the motorcycle was stolen, too.
Officers parked and kept an eye on the motorcycle and, after about 10 minutes, a man and a woman walked up to the bike and picked up the backpacks. Officers approached the pair and ended up arresting the man, who initially gave officers a fake name. After searching the man, officers discovered he was carrying a number of bank cards, which didn’t belong to him.
West Precinct burglary detectives took over the case, which led them to a home on Boylston Avenue and E. Newton Street, where detectives and SWAT served a warrant around 9am Thursday morning.
At the home, police found two more stolen motorcycles, a gram of methamphetamine, six suspected stolen bicycles, and more than a dozen suspected stolen computers.
Officers arrested a 36-year-old man at the home and booked him into the King County Jail.