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Xtreme Burglars: A Tale of POV Break-Ins, Tattoos and Ambulance Escapes

Because sometimes life imitates a fever dream Mountain Dew commercial, two men were arrested early Sunday when they tried to set up a makeshift tattoo parlor after breaking into a West Precinct parking garage, where they prowled cars and stole an elephant statue, all while one suspect filmed the incident on his head-mounted go-pro camera. One of the men then later tried to flee from an ambulance as it sped down the freeway.

Police received a call around 3:45 AM Sunday that two men had broken into a garage in the 1700 block of Dexter Avenue North. The men had tried to pick a lock on a garage before one of them scaled a barbed wire fence, cut himself free after becoming stuck, and then let the other man inside.

Officers Brett Willet, Adam Fowler and Shaun Hilton pulled up to the garage four minutes after receiving the call, heard a car alarm sounding inside the garage and saw two men–29 and 35 years old–running away.

The 35-year-old man was wearing a Go-Pro camera on his head and was carrying a chrome-colored elephant statue and an unopened package of paper plates, which police later learned were taken from the garage.

The men claimed they’d only been inside the garage so they could find an electrical outlet to use for some impromptu tattoos, and had set off a car alarm after accidentally bumping it.

While the men offered up their own GoPro footage to police–which did little to exonerate them as it showed the men attempting to pick the garage’s lock and then scaling its fence to get inside–the entire incident had also been monitored live on surveillance cameras by a security company. The company confirmed to officers that the men had indeed entered one car in the garage and peered into several others during their break-in.

When officers arrested the two suspects, the 29-year-old man claimed he had swallowed heroin. Officers called for medics, who transported him to Harborview Medical Center for a check-up. While en route to the hospital, the 29-year-old reportedly tried to jump out of an ambulance as it was driving down I-5. He was unsuccessful.

After confirming the man was not in need of medical treatment, he and the 35-year-old suspect were booked into the King County Jail for investigation of burglary.