Belltown/Fri Oct 30/4:47 am:

Officer Thomas Christenson reports: "Upon arrival, we met with the caller in the lobby, who had this to say: He had checked into room 119 at the Kings Inn last night after getting drunk at the Sounders game. At one point, he allowed into his room 'two druggies who needed a place to stay.' The victim now firmly believes that the druggie(s) had stolen two credit cards from his wallet, which he had left openly laying on the bed. He did not witness the theft of the cards, which are in the name of his girlfriend and draw upon accounts at the Bank of America and Horizon Bank. He stated that his girlfriend was currently passed out drunk at her home in Bellevue and was unable to telephone to cancel the cards. The victim declined to provide descriptions of the alleged suspects or elaborate further on his relationship."

The reason I included this report in this week's column is this and only this: It's the first crime report I have read that is related to a Sounders game. Crimes related to the Seahawks games? Way too many of those. Every Seahawks game comes with a bucket of crimes. The Sounders have finally entered the realm of Police Beat.

First Hill/Sat Oct 31/5:06 am: Officer Carry Godeke reports: "Upon arrival, the original complainant had already gone home. I contacted a staff worker who showed me surveillance footage of the theft. The footage is grainy, but shows... the personal/safekeeping area behind the front counter. Detox Center staff were away from the counter during this time. At 05:06:30, suspect can be seen grabbing a cup (in which the dentures were soaking), dumping the cup in a sink, and putting the dentures into his bag. Nobody at the center was familiar with the new surveillance system, so I was not given a copy of the footage... The victim (DOB – –1955) was still at the center, and stated he does not know the suspect but has seen him at the center. He stated the top and bottom dentures were worth $1500.00."

What's strange about this crime is not that a person stole someone's dentures but that the act itself was caught on video. For reasons that I cannot explain, seeing this innocuous crime on grainy video makes it mysterious and even threatening.