WASHINGTON STATE STOLEN COMPUTERS RECOVERED HeraldNet: Police recover more than $300,000 in stolen property:

Police recover more than $300,000 in stolen property

By Jackson Holtz
Herald Writer
LYNNWOOD -- When police opened the door to a rented storage locker near Lynnwood, they found more than $200,000 in stolen property.

Among the hot items: a huge plasma TV, 20 cell phones, eight laptop computers, bicycles, cameras, a flute and a German-made violin.

'It was an extraordinary amount of property. It was chock full,' Snohomish County Auto Theft

Task Force commander Lt. Brent Speyer said. 'It took more than two days to sort through it all."The find came after a man was arrested with a stolen car, Speyer said.

On March 11, Speyer and his team of detectives set up surveillance outside a Silver Lake-area Travelodge. They nabbed the man, 38, as he got into a green Eagle Talon.

That arrest -- for investigation of theft of motor vehicle -- set off the largest property crime bust the county's new auto force has made since it was formed in October, Speyer said.

In addition to the Lynn­wood rental locker, police also searched the motel room and a storage shed in Woodinville. In all, police recovered more than $300,000 worth ofstolen property, Speyer said.

"There was pretty expensive jewelry, family heirloom-type stuff," he said.

People who commit property crimes aren't always picky. Car thieves often also burglarize homes. People who break into homes sometimes go on to steal people's identities.

"It all runs together and this is a perfect example," Speyer said.

That's one reason the county task force was pulled together, Speyer said.

The man who was arrested with the stolen car posted bond and soon was back on the streets.

Before police put him in handcuffs again, they developed enough evidence to arrest him in connection with burglaries in south Snohomish County, Shoreline, Bellevue and Kirkland.

Detectives also believe the man on Wednesday assaulted a Seattle police officer who earlier tried to arrest him in Ballard.

The auto task force caught up with the man and his girlfriend later near Echo Lake, Speyer said.

They had to use an electronic stun gun to subdue him before placing him in handcuffs.

Now, the man is being held on $500,000 bail for investigation of multiple counts of possession of stolen property and for being a felon in possession of a firearm. The man's girlfriend also was arrested.

The arrest was welcome news to the people whose property was found in the storage shed.

"It makes me feel a lot better," said a Shoreline man, 54, who asked that his name not be used.

The man said on Jan. 20 his teenage daughter arrived home early from high school to find the house ransacked and more than $80,000 in valuables gone.

Many heirloom pieces of jewelry were recovered, but some pricey gifts still are missing.

"It is a very unsettling, disconcerting feeling of violation, it just feels bad," the man said.

The arrests offer hope that justice will be served, he said.

"It renews and restores a little faith in things when good thing like that happen," the man said.