Olympia Police track strong-armed robbery suspects to Seattle Thursday, arrest them
Olympia Police detectives tracked suspects in a strong-armed robbery to Seattle Thursday night, in a saga that ended in three arrests and the recovery of thousands of dollars worth of electronic equipment, the department says.
About 8:30 p.m. Thursday, police responded to the AT&T store on the 4200 block of Martin Way East, according to Lt. Paul Lower. A sales clerk working at the store told police a man pretended to be a customer, using a ruse to get the clerk to go to a back office.
Once he was in the office, the man and two others followed him, Lt. Lower said. The men held the clerk against a wall and struck him, stealing what the store estimates was $40,000 to $50,000 worth of electronics, such as cell phones and tablets.
Before the suspects drove off, Lower said, they told the clerk not to call anybody and threatened to kill him — but, the clerk called 911 immediately. The employee was uninjured, Lower said, aside from some bumps and bruises.
AT&T security began helping detectives track the stolen property via GPS, according to Lower. They saw the equipment was headed north on Interstate 5, Lower said. The suspects stopped briefly in Renton, then continued up the freeway, stopping at an apartment complex in north Seattle.
Detectives parked across from the apartment and saw a car that matched a description given by the store clerk, with stolen property visible in the back seat, Lower said. A person in the parking lot told detectives they had seen three men in the apartment building.
They called Seattle Police for assistance and applied for warrants to search the car and apartment, Lower said. In the apartment, police found three men who matched descriptions given by the store clerk and more stolen goods from AT&T.
Olympia Police arrested the three King County men, one in his mid-30s and two in their early 20s, on suspicion of second-degree robbery, Lower said. The department believes it recovered all the stolen equipment.
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