On October 28th, security cameras at a Pioneer Square convenience store captured a man smashing his way through the front door of the business and fleeing the scene with dozens of packs of cigarettes. While detectives have been working to learn the man’s identity, they hadn’t been able to put a name to the face captured on security cameras until yesterday.
This morning, detectives were driving around the International District working on an unrelated case when they spotted the suspected smoke thief on the street.
Detectives contacted the man, learned he had an unrelated warrant and arrested him. After searching the man’s backpack, they found 137 packs of cigarettes, which the suspect claimed he had “found.”
Detectives booked the 54-year-old suspect into the King County Jail for burglary and are now working to figure out if the cigarettes in the man’s backpack are the same ones stolen in the October 28th break-in
.
Coincidentally, police are also investigating two recent cigarette heists at Seattle convenience stores.
Sometime late Sunday evening or early Monday morning, a burglar pried out the security bars and window of a convenience store in the 2700 block of Airport Way S and made off with 15 boxes of cigarettes, worth about $1,000.
Two days earlier, someone also broke into a Seward Park convenience store and took cigarettes and Rockstar energy drinks.