Seattle patrol officers arrested two car prowlers this morning in the University District. In a separate effort, SPD detectives are working with the King County Sheriff’s Office and Sammamish police to tie thieves arrested Thursday in Marymoor Park to a string of car prowls around Greenlake.
This morning’s arrest came just before 5 AM when police received a report that two men had smashed the window of a car parked in the 4500 block of 19th Avenue NE and fled with a stolen gym bag.
Officers caught up to the suspects just a few blocks away, near 42nd and 17th NE, arrested them, and booked them into the King County Jail for vehicle prowling. Police also returned the gym bag to the victim, who informed officers several items inside the bag—a backpack, hat and three bongs—were not his. Police have yet to identify the rightful owner of the bongs.
In addition to this morning’s arrest, SPD’s detectives are working with Sammamish Police to link suspects arrested in Marymoor last week to several Seattle cases, including one recently highlighted in a Seattle Times column.
Sammamish Police served a warrant on the thieves’ van and storage locker last week and found ID cards of several victims, who reported being car prowled around Greenlake in May, September and October of this year. Seattle police are still working to tie the suspects to Seattle cases—including the Times columnist’s case—and the department is also conducting a review of how officers respond to property crime reports.