Police arrest suspect in burglary of west Olympia medical office
Olympia Police have detained a man suspected of burglarizing a west Olympia medical office in the early morning hours Wednesday, police say. Detectives are now investigating whether he might be connected to over a dozen recent, similar burglaries in the region.
About 3 a.m. Wednesday, an alarm activated at a medical office in the 400 block of Black Hills Lane Southwest, Lt. Paul Lower told The Olympian. The doctor who owns the office and an employee arrived to find a window had been pried open with the screen lying on the ground and they called 911, Lower said.
While police were on their way, the witnesses saw a man jump out of the window and run into a nearby wooded area, Lower said. Officers spotted the man at multiple points and started a K9 track, but couldn’t locate him.
Law enforcement then received a call about a stolen vehicle, which sounded suspicious to dispatchers and law enforcement, Lower said. Soon after, officers noticed a car driving into the area that appeared to be searching for someone.
The car pulled into the parking lot of a nearby grocery store, and officers saw a person who matched witnesses’ description of the burglar get into the vehicle, Lower said. When officers made contact, they discovered the diversionary car-theft phone call had come from the suspect’s phone.
Police detained the man, who Lower said is an Olympia resident in his late 20s, about 4 a.m.
He’s now a “person of interest” in several other local burglaries.
Since the beginning of March, Lower said, there have been over a dozen burglaries in the region similar to this one — they involve window-pane entry and typically target cash.
The other burglaries have involved six restaurants, one marijuana shop, five medical offices, and one other business, Lower said, in Olympia, nearby cities, and Thurston County.
Wednesday morning, detectives were serving search warrants on the vehicle and residences the man is associated with and interviewing people he knows, Lower said.
This story was originally published April 22, 2020 at 11:08 AM.
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