Police Beat

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.