Sammamish Police Blotter: Home and Vehicle Break-ins Steal the News

More than $50,000 worth of jewelry, including a ruby necklace and a sapphire necklace, and a watch with a built-in MP3 player, was reported stolen from a home on the 4500 block of 191st Place NE. The residents left the home around 4 p.m. Feb. 9, and returned about 6:45 p.m. to discover that a rear sliding door had been broken and two upstairs rooms ransacked. The jewelry was stolen, but other items of value, such as $1,000 in foreign currency, were left behind, as well as the victims’ passports and social security cards. Police did recover latent fingerprints at the scene.

Following are other incidents as reported by the Sammamish Police Department between Feb. 4 and Feb. 18

Saturday, Feb. 4

Vandalism: A 13-year-old Carnation boy was cited for malicious mischief and vandalism after he threw the wheel from a scooter, at a 2012 Volkswagen CC as it drove by the Sammamish Skate Park. The victim, a Sammamish resident, told police he saw a young man raise his arm and throw something as he passed by the skate park, and the object hit the car on the rear bumper. The boy told police he had thrown scooter part at cars on three separate occasions, but knew he had “really screwed up” when he heard the scooter wheel hit the vehicle.

Larceny: A woman reported to police that her 2005 Lexus had had its rear passenger window broken out overnight at her residence on the 24600 block of SE 9th Place and her Coach purse, including credit cards and $300 cash, had been stolen sometime between 11:30 p.m. and 11 a.m. Feb. 5

Larceny: A realtor’s lock box was reported stolen from an unoccupied home on the 3600 block of 211 Place NE.

Sunday, Feb. 5

Larceny: A woman called to report that her purse, containing about $600 cash, had been stolen out of her open garage on the 22100 block of NE 13 Place.

Larceny: A woman living on the 1300 block of 251st Ave SE reported to police that her Toyota Sequoia had had its rear passenger window smashed overnight, and her purse was stolen, including credit cards and identification. The prowler had already used the credit cards for a number of small purchases including at Safeway, Albertsons, gas stations and at red Box video kiosks.

Monday, Feb. 6

Residential burglary: A family living on the 23000 block of NE 8th St. reported that their home had been broken into after the man received a call from Great Western Bank and Chase bank about possible fraudulent activity on his accounts. He returned home to find that the home had been broken into. Police found that the rear garage door had been pried open, and an upstairs window was broken but was too small for anyone to enter through. Among the items missing were a laptop computer, a pearl necklace, and checkbooks and credit cards.

Tuesday, Feb. 7

Fraud: a Sammamish woman reported to police that someone had fraudulently withdrawn money from her Chase bank account on two occasions, the first time $3,000, and the other $100, from two separate accounts.

Wednesday, Feb. 8

Suspicious Persons: Police were called to investigate a possible child-luring case at Discovery Elementary. A boy said that two men in a white landscaping truck tried to pick him up at the 22600 block of SE 20th as he walked home. The boy ran back to the school and waited at the office ffor his mother. The boy said one of the men in the truck was wearing a plaid shirt, but the truck had no markings or bumper stickers. Neither of the men spoke to the boy, but tried to wave him over to the truck. When the boy took out his cell phone to call his mother, the truck left, heading westbound on SE 20th.

Attempted Burglary: A man living on 246th Place NE reported that he noticed someone had unscrewed the bulbs in his outdoor motion sensor lights. Police recovered some possible prints from a window frame at the scene.

Controlled Substance for Disposal: At about 1 a.m. police were called to the 76 Gas Station on 228th Ave NE to investigate a report of four black men smoking marijuana. The police officer questioned four men and two women who were in a Dodge van with Wisconsin license plates. The officer smelled unsmoked marijuana, and eventually one of the men turned over a package of about 1.9 grams of cannabis, but no one would admit to owning the marijuana or smoking it, so police seized it and turned it over for disposal.

Thursday, Feb. 9

Burglary: A resident of a home on the 20000 block of NE 33rd Ct. reported that the family had inadvertently left their attached garage unlocked overnight, and her Coach purse had been stolen from inside her 2007 Acura. The purse contained credit and debit cards as well as $200 cash. At the time of the report, no had attempted to use the credit cards, and no fingerprints were found at the scene.

Larceny: on the 18000 block of NE 55th St., two residents reported that their vehicles had been broken into. The owner of a ford explorer and the owner of a Jeep Wrangler had items stolen, including a GPS unit and a Lenova Think Pad. The vehicles had been left in a driveway unsecured.

DUI: Police stopped a 23-year-old Sammamish man on East Lake Sammamish Parkway at about 11:30 p.m. for speeding, traveling 56 mph in a 35 mph speed zone. The office said the driver smelled of alcohol and had bloodshot, watery eyes. The man refused to take field sobriety tests and was arrested and his car impounded. Two hours later, he gave breathalyzer samples showing a blood alcohol level of .105. He was booked into Issaquah Jail for DUI, because he had a prior DUI arrest.

Friday, Feb. 10

Residential burglary:  A man living at the 20000 block of NE 34th Place reported that a laptop computer had been stolen from the trunk of his Toyota MR2 had been stolen from his car in a secured garage. There were no signs of forced entry, but the victims reported that the family had been awakened around 3:30 a.m. by the family dog barking, but at the time didn’t suspect anything. Later that morning, they discovered that the computer was missing.

Saturday, Feb. 11

Vandalism: A real estate agent reported that someone had painted obscenities on the rear windows of a home that is new construction, as well as on the concrete porch and the siding; a nearby John Deere tractor also was vandalized with spray paint. The total property damage is estimated at $1,400.

Larceny: The owners of a home on the 1700 block of 266 Way SE, which is for sale, reported that while they were away at their other residence in  another city between Jan. 31 and Feb. 5, someone stole about $5,000 worth of jewelry from the home. The home was accessed four different times by realtors showing it to clients.

Cyberstalking: A woman reported to the KCSO that her estranged husband was committing cyberstalking, since Oct, 2011, tampering with her cell phone while she was out of town. Sprint has initiated a cyber stalking case.

Minor driving under the influence: A 17-year-old Sammamish man was arrested for DUI and his 1998 Volkswagen Golf was impounded after police observed him violating several traffic laws at around 3 a.m. The officer stopped the vehicle on NE 16th Street near 216th Ave. NE, and gave the driver field sobriety tests after detecting a strong odor of unburned marijuana in the car. A teenage female passenger was released at the scene. The suspect refused a voluntary search of the vehicle, and was transported to Evergreen hospital for a blood draw.

Sunday, Feb. 12

Larceny: 2000 block of NE 38th St. A lock box was stolen from a home for sale, but there apparently was nothing stolen from the home.

Monday, Feb. 13

Suspicious Person: On Feb. 12, police were called to a residence where a man, reportedly with schizophrenia, had formerly lived and caused damage while he was a tenant there. He was issued a trespass letter, which he refused to sign, and escorted away from the property. On Feb. 13, the man was reported loitering around his former residence on the 24000 block of NE 27th Place and around Inglewood Jr. High, where he attempted to speak to a young girl, but left a short time later.

Tuesday, Feb. 14

Larceny: A resident on the 2200 block of NE Inglewood Hill Rd reported that her car, a 1997 Honda Civic, had been broken into at the Knolls Apartments and a cd player was stolen, and a stereo broken, apparently from the prowler’s attempts to remove it. No prints were recovered from the scene.

Wednesday, Feb. 15

Larceny: A resident of the 500 block of 207th Ave NE reported to police that his copper driveway marker pillar lights had been stolen; they are valued at about $2,000.

Vandalism: Two neighbors called police to file reports of vandalism at about 1 a.m. near the 700 block of 218th Ave. SE, and one attempted to follow the suspects with a shotgun after an earlier evening confrontation with the suspects, two white males. When deputies arrived at the scene, they instructed the victim armed with a shotgun to put it on the ground, and he did so. Police say the neighbors saw the men walking down the street pushing a wheelbarrow with fertilizer and a bike in it, and confronted the men thinking the items were stolen. The neighbors told police they suspected the men had returned for revenge, but did not see anyone leaving the property. One of the victims had all of the tires slashed on his truck and a horse trailer, and the other had a soft-ball sized rock thrown through a window on his home and a rock thrown through the window on his truck.

Saturday, Feb. 18

Auto Theft: A Sammamish man reported that he had left his car running and unlocked at the Madison Apartments to warm up at about 12:30 a.m. He went into QFC and returned two or three minutes later and the vehicle, a grey 2000 Mitsubishi Gallant was gone.