Police recovered three stolen vehicles on Monday after a suspected car thief tried to buy new tires with a forged check.
A West Seattle tire store contacted police after a 41-year-old man brought in a Mercedes and asked to replace some of its tires. He later returned and tried to pay with a clearly forged check, and then asked to apply for a line of credit even though he was unable to provide ID.
Employees at the tire shop became suspicious and contacted police and officers arrested the man Monday after he arrived at the shop to pick up the Mercedes. When officers took him into custody, he was carrying a license plate from another vehicle, which had apparently been stolen hours earlier but not yet been reported to police. At the time of the arrest, he was also wearing a jacket for a valet company, which had reported the Mercedes stolen.
During the investigation, police recovered several key fobs for other expensive cars, stolen checks taken in a recent burglary at a business, and ID cards belonging to other people, as well as modified keys typically used by auto thieves.
Police booked the 41-year-old man into the King County Jail for investigation of auto theft and are requesting charges related to the stolen license plate, possession of auto theft tools and providing a fake name to police. Major Crimes Unit detectives continue to investigate.